Excel Formulas to Find the Position of 2nd & 3rd Instance of Character!!
Tags: excelformula, excelformulas
Published: 2021-06-21 02:48:37

---
title: Excel Formulas to Find the Position of 2nd & 3rd Instance of Character!!
published: true
date: 2021-06-14 07:20:23 UTC
tags: ExcelFormula,Excelformulas
canonical_url: https://geekexcel.com/excel-formulas-to-find-the-position-of-2nd-3rd-instance-of-character/
---

By default, the **FIND function** returns the position number of the first instance of the character you are searching for. If you want the position number of the second instance, you can use the optional Start\_Num argument. In this chapter, we will show the step-by-step procedure to find out the **position of the 2nd and 3rd instance of a character in Excel**. Let’s see them below!! Get an official version of ** MS Excel**  from the following link: [https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/microsoft-365/excel](https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/microsoft-365/excel)

[![Find position of 2nd and 3rd instance character](https://geekexcel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Find-position-of-2nd-and-3rd-instance-character.png)](https://geekexcel.com/excel-formulas-to-find-the-position-of-2nd-3rd-instance-of-character/find-position-of-2nd-and-3rd-instance-character/#main)<figcaption id="caption-attachment-46409">Find position of 2nd and 3rd instance character</figcaption>

## General Formula:

- You can use the below formula to find out the position of the 2nd and 3rd instance of a character in Excel.

**=[FIND](https://geekexcel.com/how-to-use-find-function-in-microsoft-excel-365/)(“~”,[SUBSTITUTE](https://geekexcel.com/how-to-use-substitute-function-in-microsoft-excel-2013/)(text,char,”~”,instance))**

## Syntax Explanations:

- **FIND** – This function helps to find out the one text string inside the other. Read more on the **[FIND function](https://geekexcel.com/how-to-use-find-function-in-microsoft-excel-365/)**.
- **SUBSTITUTE** – In Excel, the **[SUBSTITUTE Function](https://geekexcel.com/how-to-use-substitute-function-in-microsoft-excel-2013/)** can replace existing text with new text in a text string when you want to replace text based on its content, not position.
- **Text**  – It represents the input value.
- **Char** – It specifies the character that you want to be found.
- **Instance** – It represents the position of the character.
- **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.

## Example:

Let’s consider the below example image.

- Here we will enter the input names in **Column B**.
- Now we need to find out the Nth position of the character which is given in **Column C** and **Column D**.

![Input Ranges](https://geekexcel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Input-Ranges-30.png)<figcaption id="caption-attachment-46410">Input Ranges</figcaption>

- Select any cell and type the above-given formula.

![Enter the formula](https://geekexcel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Enter-the-formula-40.png)<figcaption id="caption-attachment-46412">Enter the formula</figcaption>

- Finally, press the ** ENTER**  key, you can get the result as shown below.

![Result](https://geekexcel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Result-33.png)<figcaption id="caption-attachment-46411">Result</figcaption>

## Wrap-Up:

This page provides some useful tricks to find out the **position of the 2nd and 3rd instance of a character in Excel**. Hope you like it. If you have any **questions** or suggestions regarding this lesson, feel free to use the **comments** section below to let us know.

Thank you so much for visiting  **[Geek Excel](https://geekexcel.com/)!! **If you want to learn more helpful formulas, check out [**Excel Formulas**](https://geekexcel.com/excel-formula/) **!! **

### Read Also:

- **[Excel Formulas to Find the Most Frequent Text with Criteria!!](https://geekexcel.com/excel-formulas-to-find-the-most-frequent-text-with-criteria/)**
- **[Formulas for Counting Rows that Matches Two or More Criteria in Excel!!](https://geekexcel.com/formulas-for-counting-rows-that-matches-two-or-more-criteria-in-excel/)**
- **[Excel Formulas to Count Total Words in a Range ~ Useful Tips!!](https://geekexcel.com/excel-formulas-to-count-total-words-in-a-range/)**
- **[Excel Formulas to Normalize the Text ~ A Complete Tutorial!!](https://geekexcel.com/excel-formulas-to-normalize-the-text-a-complete-tutorial/)**