REGEXMATCH tests whether text contains a regular-expression match and returns TRUE or FALSE. Anchors let you test an entire string rather than just a matching portion.
REGEXMATCH function syntax
=REGEXMATCH(text, regular_expression)- text: text input or reference.
- regular_expression: RE2 pattern in quotes.
Set up the example data
Enter this small dataset starting in A1. The first row contains headers. Keep the formula output separate from the input cells.
| Text |
|---|
| Order A17 |
| PR-204 |
| URGENT delivery |
| cat food |
| alex+tag@example.com |
Check whether text contains digits
Enter this formula in A10. The character class matches any ASCII digit. One matching character anywhere in the cell is enough.
=REGEXMATCH(A2,"[0-9]")Result: TRUE.
Test the start of a code
The caret anchors the match to the start. A code containing PR only in the middle would fail this test.
=REGEXMATCH(A3,"^PR")Result: TRUE.
Ignore capitalization
Putting the flag first makes the whole pattern case-insensitive. RE2 also supports scoped flags; the flag is not universally restricted to the start.
=REGEXMATCH(A4,"(?i)urgent")Result: TRUE.
Match whole words from a list
Alternation accepts any listed animal. Word boundaries avoid matching cat inside a longer word such as catalogue.
=REGEXMATCH(A5,"(?i)\b(cat|dog|bird)\b")Result: TRUE.
Check a basic email shape
This checks for non-space text on both sides of an at sign and a dot in the domain. It accepts plus tags.
=REGEXMATCH(A6,"^[^@\s]+@[^@\s]+\.[^@\s]+$")Result: TRUE.
Handle empty text explicitly
Empty text does not contain a digit, so this test returns FALSE. An empty-text matching pattern can produce TRUE instead.
=REGEXMATCH("","[0-9]")Result: FALSE.
Convert numeric input
Convert a number before passing it to REGEXMATCH. Google documents text-only input and RE2 support excluding Unicode character classes.
=REGEXMATCH(TO_TEXT(123),"[0-9]")Result: TRUE.
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