LOOKUP the First Text from a List in Excel

The VLOOKUP function works fine with wildcard characters. We can use this to extract the first text value from a given list in excel. Here is the generic formula.

Generic First Text Retrieving Excel Formula

=VLOOKUP("*",lookup_table,col,0)

"*": This a wildcard operator that is used to search any text.

lookup_table: The table in which you want to do the lookup.

col: The column number in the table that you want to fetch the value from.

0: for Exact match.

Let's have an example so that we can see this excel formula in action.

Example: Retrieve first text value from a list in excel

Here we have a list of data that contains some numbers, texts, and blanks. We will extract the first text value from this list using the above generic formula.

Write this VLOOKUP formula in a cell to retrieve the first text value from the list.

=VLOOKUP("*",A2:A8,1,0)

Hit enter. This returns John-3.

How does it work?

It is simple. The VLOOKUP function works with wildcard operators. It means that if you have just "*", VLOOKUP will lookup for any text value.

Here, the lookup value is "*", the lookup value is A2: A8, and the column index is 1 with match type exact. This formula looks for any text in range A2:A8 and returns the first text value from the range.

Notes:

Even spaces are considered as text. Hence if you have a cell that contains space, this formula will return that cell. It will look like a blank.
If you have numbers formated as text, this function will not work on them. If they are text with apostrophe (') then they will be caught.

So yeah guys, this how you can retrieve first text value from a list in excel. If you have any doubt or specific query regarding this topic or any other Excel/2010/2013/2016/365/VBA related query, ask in the comments section below.

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