I'm new to Excel (which I now use for work) and just learning how to implement custom formulas. I'm asking this question specifically in regards to Google Sheets but I tagged Excel in case it also applies there.
I can't share the exact sheet in question because of sensitive information, but I wanted to write a formula that would highlight any row based on whether its cell in column A contained a phrase, such as "apple". So if A2 is "applesauce", A3 is "apples and oranges", and A4 is "sapplease", they should all be highlighted.
I selected my range and wrote this formula in Conditional Formatting > Custom rule is... : =$A2="* apple*" (no space) which did not work.
I found another solution online and used this formula: =FIND("apple", $A:$A) which did work.
Now I am just wondering if someone can explain why the first formula did not work - I've only used wildcards on Excel before, do they not work on Sheets? Or was there something else I was doing wrong?
So far have not been able to find answers with a simple Google search, which is why I posted here - thank you to anyone who can help!
