Excel Formulas to Highlight Cells that begin with a Given Criteria!!
Tags: excelformula, conditionalformattin, excelformulas
Published: 2021-03-19 12:00:20

---
title: Excel Formulas to Highlight Cells that begin with a Given Criteria!!
published: true
date: 2021-03-19 11:57:21 UTC
tags: ExcelFormula,Conditionalformattin,Excelformulas
canonical_url: https://geekexcel.com/excel-formulas-highlight-cells-that-begin-with-given-criteria/
---

 **Conditional formatting** is nothing but to apply formats in the selected cells based on certain conditions. In this tutorial, we will show the simple formula used to **highlight the cells that begin with a given condition in Excel**. Let’s jump into this article!! 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)

[![Highlight the cells that begin with](https://geekexcel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Highlight-the-cells-that-begin-with.png)](https://geekexcel.com/excel-formulas-highlight-cells-that-begin-with-given-criteria/highlight-the-cells-that-begin-with/#main)<figcaption id="caption-attachment-22566">Highlight the cells that begin with</figcaption>
## General Formula:

- You can use the below formula to highlight the cells that starts with a certain condition.

**=[SEARCH](https://geekexcel.com/use-search-function-in-microsoft-excel-2013-simple-methods/)(“substring”,A1)=1**

## Syntax Explanations:

- **SEARCH** – The **[SEARCH function](https://geekexcel.com/use-search-function-in-microsoft-excel-2013-simple-methods/)** will help to locate the character between ** two text string** and returns to the ** number**  of the ** starting position**  of the ** first text string**  from the ** first character of the second text string.**
- **Substring** – It is the criteria that want to highlight.
- **A1** – It represents the input value cell.
- **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:

Refer to the below example image.

- Here we have a list of names from **Column B** to **Column E**.
- Now we want the format the cells that start with the criteria value which is given in **Column G**.

![Input Ranges](https://geekexcel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Input-Ranges-25.png)<figcaption id="caption-attachment-22563">Input Ranges</figcaption>

- So apply the above-given formula in the conditional formatting option.
- To know  **how to apply conditional formatting**  in Excel, just **refer to this article<u>:</u>[ How to Apply the Formula with Conditional Formatting In Excel?](https://geekexcel.com/how-to-apply-formula-with-conditional-formatting/)**
- Finally, it will highlight the result and displayed it as shown below.

![Result](https://geekexcel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Result-28.png)<figcaption id="caption-attachment-22564">Result</figcaption>

## Wind-Up:

From this short tutorial, you can get some clarification on how to **highlight the cells that begin with the given criteria in Excel**. Hope you like this article. If you have any doubts, don’t forget to share them with us. Thank you for visiting our site!! To learn more, check out **[Geek Excel](https://geekexcel.com/) **and [**Excel Formulas**](https://geekexcel.com/excel-formula/) **!!**

### Read Also:

- **[Excel Formulas to Count Numbers that Begins with Certain Number!!](https://geekexcel.com/excel-formulas-to-count-numbers-that-begins-with-certain-number/)**
- **[Formulas for Counting Cells that Begin with Some Value in Excel!!](https://geekexcel.com/formulas-for-counting-cells-that-begin-with-some-value-in-excel/)**
- **[Excel Formulas to Sum the Cells that Begin with Specific Values!!](https://geekexcel.com/excel-formulas-to-sum-the-cells-that-begin-with-specific-values/)**