Nested IF functions to search for/report values in new cell

[bocceoverrun]

I have cells that contain a citation which includes a date (e.g., 2013, 2014, or 2015). I'd like to search the cell and have the formula report which year is present in the cell. This is the formula I was trying to use, but it doesn't seem to be working:

=IF(SEARCH("2013", C2) "2013", IF(SEARCH("2014", C2), "2014", IF(SEARCH("2015", C2), "2015")))

Thank you!

 

[AkaTrouble]

can you not just return the cell value

example in A10 if A1 = year put

=A1

why search for something that the answer is already in the cell being searched

 

[bbott]

I have cells that contain a citation which includes a date (e.g., 2013, 2014, or 2015). I'd like to search the cell and have the formula report which year is present in the cell. This is the formula I was trying to use, but it doesn't seem to be working:

=IF(SEARCH("2013", C2) "2013", IF(SEARCH("2014", C2), "2014", IF(SEARCH("2015", C2), "2015")))

Thank you!

Can you provide an example of what a citation with a date looks like?

 

[bocceoverrun]

Can you provide an example of what a citation with a date looks like?

Yes, It is text like this:

Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle), February 18, 2015 Wednesday, 348 words, Emily Parkhurst

 

[bbott]

Maybe:

=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(2013,C2)),2013,IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(2014,C2)),2014,IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(2015,C2)),2015,"")))

Of course, this will cause a false positive if the word count happens to match a year (i.e. 2013, 2014, etc).