How can I replace the Asterisk (*) symbol in a text string?

Eggspit

New Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
39
Howdy,

I am having to play around with heaps of data entries and for whatever reason some data includes an asterisk *

I have attempted to find/replace the * symbol to either change or remove it, but for some reason in Excel this method won't work with the * symbol (changes the whole text string rather then just the *)!!? So currently having to paste the data into Word to find/replace any * and then back to Excel (which is proving very time consuming with large data lists).

Is there a formula that will allow me to search a text string and replace any * with a specified criteria and why doesn't Excel like the little blighters?

Example:
Formula changes any * with a number 1

John* = John1
*House = 1House
Mr*Excel = Mr1Excel

Thx
Egg

******************************************
 
Last edited:

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I have attempted to find/replace the * symbol to either change or remove it, but for some reason in Excel this method won't work with the * symbol

Hi Egg

The * is a wild card character. You can use the Find/Replace with a wild card, just escape it with a tilde (~)

So try the Replace with

Find what: ~*
Replace with: 1
 
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