Free Software Linux

I talked in this post about how to use regular expressions in filters. 

The key point is that where you would use * in Excel, you use .* in Calc.

Filters aren't the only place where regular expressions come up.  Let's say you want to count the number of people whose last name ends in "son" in a big list of names, range C5:C300. You can use COUNTIF. Here's an example. First you have the range, then the text you want to find in the range. The result is the number of time that text was found in the range.

I hit Return and I get the correct result, 2. (Only 2 because I'm lazy and didn't create 300+ sample names for this blog. ;>  )

Now, the reason that the correct result is shown is that I have this option marked under Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Calc > Calculate. It's pretty straightforward: "Enable Regular Expressions in Formulas."

If I unmark  that option and click OK, then I get 0 as my result. So if you do regular expressions in formulas, keep it marked.

Note: I've also been told that you should deselect Search Criteria = and <> Must Apply to the Whole Cell but I haven't noticed an effect one way or the other.