Excel VLOOKUP: Searching for Text Inside a String

VLOOKUP Text Inside A String

For this just use a vlookup with such a syntax:

=VLOOKUP(“*”&A1&”*”,B1:B10,1,FALSE)

where

“*” – some string of text

& – connection

A1 – here you have a string of text you are looking for in the array

& – again connection of formula

“*” – again some string of text

FALSE – that is kind of important, because you are looking for exact match here

Example:

You have a column of first names and family names. You want to find out what is the name of some person and you remember only the family name.

=VLOOKUP(“*”&A1&”*”,B1:B10,1,FALSE) formula solves your problem.

Template

Further reading: 
How to create many to many lookup?
Backwards Vlookup
Basic concepts 
Getting started with Excel
Cell References