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FIND

  • Article

Returns the starting position of one text string within another text string. FIND is case-sensitive.

Syntax

FIND(<find_text>, <within_text>[, [<start_num>][, <NotFoundValue>]])

Parameters

Term Definition
find_text The text you want to find. Use double quotes (empty text) to match the first character in within_text.
within_text The text containing the text you want to find.
start_num (optional) The character at which to start the search; if omitted, start_num = 1. The first character in within_text is character number 1.
NotFoundValue (optional, but strongly recommended) The value that should be returned when the operation does not find a matching substring, typically 0, -1, or BLANK(). If not specified, an error is returned.

Return value

Number that shows the starting point of the text string you want to find.

Remarks

  • Whereas Microsoft Excel has multiple versions of the FIND function to accommodate single-byte character set (SBCS) and double-byte character set (DBCS) languages, DAX uses Unicode and counts each character the same way; therefore, you do not need to use a different version depending on the character type.

  • This function is not supported for use in DirectQuery mode when used in calculated columns or row-level security (RLS) rules.

  • FIND does not support wildcards. To use wildcards, use SEARCH.

Example

The following DAX query finds the position of the first letter of "Bike", in the string that contains the reseller name. If not found, Blank is returned.

Keep in mind, FIND is case-sensitive. In this example, if "bike" were used in the <find_text> argument, no results would be returned. Use SEARCH for case-insensitive.

Examples in this article can be used with the sample Adventure Works DW 2020 Power BI Desktop model. To get the model, see DAX sample model.

EVALUATE
CALCULATETABLE (
    ADDCOLUMNS (
        TOPN ( 10, SUMMARIZE('Reseller', [Reseller], [Business Type])),
        "Position of Bike", FIND ( "Bike", 'Reseller'[Reseller], 1, BLANK () )
    ),
    'Reseller'[Business Type] IN { "Specialty Bike Shop", "Value Added Reseller", "Warehouse"}
)

Returns,

Reseller Business Type Position of Bike
Volume Bike Sellers Warehouse 8
Mass Market Bikes Value Added Reseller 13
Twin Cycles Value Added Reseller
Rich Department Store Warehouse
Rental Gallery Specialty Bike Shop
Budget Toy Store Warehouse
Global Sports Outlet Warehouse
Online Bike Catalog Warehouse 8
Helmets and Cycles Value Added Reseller
Jumbo Bikes Specialty Bike Shop 7

Related content

SEARCH
Text functions