There are three wildcard characters available in Excel such as an asterisk (*), question mark (?), and Tilda (~). In this tutorial, we are going to see how to find the first matching value in a range with a wildcard in Excel. Let’s get into this article!! Get an official version of ** MS Excel** from the following link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/microsoft-365/excel

General Formula:
- To find the first match in a range, you can use the below formula.
=INDEX(range,MATCH(value&”*”,range,0))
Syntax Explanations:
- INDEX – It will help to return the value at a given position in a range or array. Read more on the INDEX Function.
- MATCH -The MATCH function in Excel helps to locate the position of a lookup value in a row, column, or table.
- Comma symbol (,) – It is a separator that helps to separate a list of values.
- Parenthesis () – The main purpose of this symbol is to group the elements.
- Range – It represents the input ranges in your worksheet.
- Asterisk (*) – This symbol is used to represent any number of characters.
- Value – It represents the input values,
Example:
- Now we are going to see how to find the first matching values.
- Refer to the below image.
- Here, we will give the input values in Column B , Column C , and Column D.
- Then, enter the given formula in the formula bar section.
- Finally, it will display the results in Cell G4.
Wind-Up:
From this tutorial, you can get to know the simple formulas used to find the first matching value in a range with a wildcard in Excel. Hope you like this article!! Please share your query below in the comment box. We will assist you. To learn more, check out Geek Excel and Excel Formulas !!

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