Find and Replace Hack

If you've ever imported data from the web and found pesky wildcard characters like asterisks messing with your cell contents, this lesson is your solution. We'll demonstrate how to locate and replace wildcard characters efficiently. Using the standard Find and Replace might seem straightforward, but there's a catch – the asterisk (*) is a wildcard character in Excel. Clicking "Replace All" with the asterisk alone will erase everything in the cell, as the wildcard denotes "all." We've got a simple trick for you. We can precisely target and replace just the unwanted character. Learn this clever technique and save yourself from data cleanup frustration.