Searching for and Replacing Text

To locate one or more records in which you expect to find specific text, you can use the Find feature. In the Find dialog box, you enter the text you want to find, and specify whether Access should search the current field or the entire table, and whether the text you enter should match part of the field or the whole field. You can also indicate whether Access should look for matching capitalization. When Access finds the first record that contains the specified text, it selects that record. You can then move to the next matching record or cancel the search. You can also use the Find and Replace feature to automatically replace specified text with new text. You can review and change each occurrence individually, or replace all occurrences at once.

Search for Text in the Current Field

Display the table in Datasheet view.

Click the insertion point anywhere in the field (column) where you expect to find the text for which you want to search.

Click the Find button on the Table Datasheet toolbar.

Type the text you want to find in either uppercase or lowercase letters .

Click the Look In list arrow to specify whether Find should search the current field or the entire table.

Click the Match list arrow, and indicate whether you want the text you typed to match the whole field or part of the field.

Click Find Next as many times as necessary to view all the records that contain the specified text.

When you're done, click the Close button.

Find and Replace Text

In the Find And Replace dialog box, click the Replace tab.

Type the text you want to find, and then press Tab.

Type the replacement text.

Click Find Next.

Click Replace to replace the first occurrence with the replacement text, or click Replace All to replace all occurrences with the replacement text, or click Find Next to skip to the next occurrence.

Click the Close button.

Did You Know?

You can search for formatted text . To search for records matching the case of the text you type, select the Match Case check box.

You can search for formatted text . You might need to find information that has been assigned a specific data format, such as a date format, without entering the information in the specified format. For example, if dates are displayed in the format 05-Jan-04, you can locate that number by typing 1/5/04. Select the Search Fields As Formatted check box to only search for the text as formatted. Be aware that searching this way can be slow.