Locating Words With Specific Letters in a Column

dcofer

Board Regular
Joined
Jun 25, 2004
Messages
203
Hello all,

Thanks in advance for your help. I have about 2500 five letter words in Column A. I want to find a quick way to find every word in the column that contain two or more specific letters. For example, I want to get a list or perhaps have Excel highlight every word in the column that has both a U and a R, or perhaps every word that contains an H, E, and a D. Those are just examples. It does not matter if Excel just highlights the words in the column that match the criteria or if it posts the list of words in a separate column. If I am only looking for all the words with one letter I can use Control F to find the words that contain that letter, but I don't know how to search for all words with two or more letters. (No VBA solutions, please as I am not fluent in VBA).

Thanks again for any assistance.

David
 

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If you have MSO365, try:

Excel Formula:
=LET(a,A1:A2500,FILTER(a,ISNUMBER(SEARCH("U",a))*ISNUMBER(SEARCH("R",a))))


-----
Other option with conditional formating:

Dante Amor
A
1asdfu
2rdfua
3sdfu
4xxxxx
5dfurj
6rjuar
7sukrl
Hoja4
Cells with Conditional Formatting
CellConditionCell FormatStop If True
A1:A2500Expression=AND(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("U",A1)),ISNUMBER(SEARCH("R",A1)))textNO
 
Last edited:
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Other way with conditional formatting:
In cell C2 write the letters you need. The words in column A will be highlighted.

Dante Amor
ABC
1Letters
2asdfuHDE
3aHDEc
4sdfue
5EsDxH
6dfurj
7rjuar
8sukrl
9aaaaa
10
Hoja4
Cells with Conditional Formatting
CellConditionCell FormatStop If True
A2:A2500Expression=SUM(--ISNUMBER(SEARCH(MID(A2,ROW($1:$5),1),$C$2)))=LEN($C$2)textNO



😇
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Solution
Yes, 6 string, doing a Wordle solver spreadsheet. I have downloaded the words in column A and split the individual letters over columns B through F. I use filters to eliminate letters in columns B through F. But sometimes I know two or three letters in the word, but not the position. I can manually do a Ctr+F in Column A to find one letter I am looking for, but am looking for a solution to find multiple letters at the same time. Since I started using the spreadsheet, I have a streak of 181 days. I typically solve the puzzle in 4 guesses at the most, and often in three guesses. I have never needed more than 5 guesses.
 
Upvote 0
DanteAmor, Thanks for your suggestions. I have not had a chance to try them yet, but it does look like it will do what I need. Thanks again!
 
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