Why does REGEXMATCH not work on numbers in Google Sheets

See it work

The formula is already in B2, filled down to B7. Change any input and the result updates, or edit the formula to experiment.

How it works

In Excel

Other ways to do it

Each one was run on the same example sheet.

Common mistakes

• TO_TEXT uses the cell's format: a number shown as 20,260,412 becomes "20,260,412". Format ID columns as plain numbers or plain text.
• Converting can't restore leading zeros that were never stored. Type IDs like 00742 into a column formatted as plain text.

Try it yourself

Same data, empty answer cell. Your formula is graded instantly, then re-checked on changed data, so a typed-in number won't pass.

Related answers

• How to check if an email address is valid in Google SheetsTest the shape with REGEXMATCH: =REGEXMATCH(A2,"^[^@\s]+@[^@\s]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,}$") returns TRUE for something@domain.tld.
• How to count cells that match a pattern in Google SheetsTurn REGEXMATCH's TRUE and FALSE into 1 and 0 and add them: =SUMPRODUCT(--REGEXMATCH(A2:A10,"^INV-\d{4}$")).
• How to filter rows with REGEXMATCH in Google SheetsUse REGEXMATCH as the FILTER condition: =FILTER(A2:B10,REGEXMATCH(B2:B10,F1)) keeps the rows whose email matches the pattern in F1.
• How to check if a cell contains a number in ExcelLook for each digit 0 to 9 and count the hits: =COUNT(FIND({0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9},A2))>0. In Google Sheets use =REGEXMATCH(A2,"\d").
• How to check if a cell contains any word from a list in ExcelSearch for every word in the list at once and count the hits: =IF(SUMPRODUCT(--ISNUMBER(SEARCH($D$2:$D$4,A2)))>0,"Yes","No").
• How to check if a cell contains one of several words in Google SheetsJoin the words into one pattern with | and test it: =REGEXMATCH(A2,"(?i)"&TEXTJOIN("|",TRUE,$D$2:$D$4)).

Functions used: REGEXMATCH · TO_TEXT · TEXT