How to replace part of formula in all cells

This article explains how to substitute part of a formula across all cells in a worksheet. It is easier than you think, no VBA programming or formulas are needed.

The picture above demonstrates a simple example, the formula in cell B3 gets values below 5 from sheet 2 cell range B3:B12.

Array formula in cell B3

=SMALL(IF(Sheet2!$B$3:$B$12<5, Sheet2!$B$3:$B$12, ""), ROWS($A$1:A1))

I will now show you how to replace Sheet2 with Sheet3 in formulas, in all cells in Sheet1. Simply press CTRL and H to open the Find and Replace dialog box.

Click the "Options" button to see all settings.

Here you have the option to

Search the entire workbook or just the active worksheet. I want to search the active worksheet so I change nothing.
Match entire cell contents. Deselect the check box, I want to match specific strings in formulas.

Click in field "Find what:" and type Sheet2. Now click in field "Replace with:" and type Sheet3, then click on "Replace All" button.

This will find all instances of Sheet2 in all cells and replace them with Sheet3.

Click the "OK" button and then the "Close" button.

The array formula in cell B3 (Sheet1) changes to:

=SMALL(IF(Sheet3!$B$3:$B$12<5, Sheet3!$B$3:$B$12, ""), ROWS($A$1:A1))

Replace part of formula in a specific cell range

Simply select the cell range, press CTRL + H to open the Find and Replace dialog box.

The "Find and Replace" action will now be applied to cell range B3:B4.

Replace n:th instance

Array formula in cell B3 (Sheet1)

=SMALL(IF(Sheet2!$B$3:$B$12<5, Sheet2!$B$3:$B$12, ""), ROWS($A$1:A1))

To replace only the first instance of a specific search string in the formula simply include more characters so it makes the search string unique.

Example, you want to replace Sheet2 with Sheet3 but only the first instance found in the formula.

Press CTRL + H to open the Find and Replace dialog box.

Don't forget to add the included characters in the "Replace with: " field as well.

String IF(Sheet2 is found in only one location in each cell, this will replace only the first instance of Sheet2.

=SMALL(IF(Sheet3!$B$3:$B$12<5, Sheet2!$B$3:$B$12, ""), ROWS($A$1:A1))

How to use absolute and relative references

What is a reference in Excel? Excel has an A1 reference style meaning columns are named letters A to XFD […]

How to quickly select a non contiguous range

A non-contiguous list is a list with occasional blank cells and that makes it harder to select the entire cell […]

How to find errors in a worksheet

Excel has great built-in features. The following one lets you search an entire worksheet for formulas that return an error. […]

Identify all characters in a cell value

Sometimes when you sort values you get unexpected results, the cause is probably unwanted characters in a cell. The same […]

How to remove unwanted characters in a cell

Cell B3 contains a few odd characters and the formula in C3 shows the ANSI equivalent of each character in […]

How to remove numbers from a cell value

This article demonstrates an array formula that extracts all characters except numbers from a cell, cell C3 contains the formula […]

How to comment

How to add a formula to your comment
<code>Insert your formula here.</code>

Convert less than and larger than signs
Use html character entities instead of less than and larger than signs.
< becomes < and > becomes >

How to add VBA code to your comment
[vb 1="vbnet" language=","]
Put your VBA code here.
[/vb]

How to add a picture to your comment:
Upload picture to postimage.org or imgur
Paste image link to your comment.

Contact Oscar

You can contact me through this contact form