This article explains how to perform basic search and replace in a Calc spreadsheet.
Table of Contents
Find
A spreadsheet may contain thousands of data. Find or Search functions used to locate a string/text in a spreadsheet. You can find the option in Calc Menu: Edit -> Find.
After clicking the Find from the menu, the main dialog appears at the bottom of the Sheet with a textbox where you can type the text you want to search. Then hit the Find Next (down arrow icon).
As a result, you can see the first hit is highlighted/ selected in the sheet if the text is found.
If you keep clicking the Find, Calc will show all the matching strings one by one.
Find All
A text may appear in multiple places in a sheet. The Find All button searches for all matching texts together and highlights them. Calc also shows a popup dialog with the list of cell numbers where it found the text. “Find all” also search multiple sheets for the same text, and the popup dialog also shows the sheet name.
Replace
Replacing a text is easy in Calc. Open the Find and Replace dialog from the Menu: Edit -> Find and Replace.
The find a replace dialog shows two main text box. Enter the text you want to find in the Find text box. And enter the text you want to be replaced within the replace text box.
As a result of clicking the Replace All, all the matched text from the find text box would be replaced with the replacement text.
Find and Replace in a Selected Range
LibreOffice Calc find and replace dialog searches and replaces strings in the entire sheet. However, it is often needed to perform find and replace in selected ranges but not in the entire sheet. Here’s how you can do it:
Please select a range where you want to find a text and replace it.
Open the Find and Replace dialog (CTRL+H). Provide Find and Replace string.
Under ‘Other options’, select “Current Selection Only” and press replace all.
Now you can see only the strings matching “East” inside the selection are replaced. Other non-selected cell strings remain untouched.
Drop a comment if you are facing difficulties or have any suggestions.