FORMULA & SQL / LOOKUPS

Check if a value exists in a column.
Tested, not guessed.

The Excel and Google Sheets formula and the SQL query, each run on the rows below. Open this with your own data ↗

The example rows

Row	A: Region	B: Rep	C: Amount	D: Order Date	E: Status	F: Customer
2	North	Ana	1,200	2026-03-01	Paid	Jo Smith
3	South	Ben	450	2026-03-15	Open	Raj Patel
4	North	Cy	300	2026-04-02	Paid	Lee Wong
5	East	Ana	980.50	2026-04-20	Paid	Mia Ross
6	North	Ben	75	2026-05-05	Open	Jo Smith
7	West	Dee	1,640	2026-05-18	Paid	Sam Okoro

Excel

=IF(COUNTIF(A2:A7,"North")>0,"Yes","No")

If the number of cells in the Region column (A2:A7) that are "North" is more than 0, then "Yes", otherwise "No".

Run on the example rows:

ResultYes

PostgreSQL

SELECT CASE WHEN COUNT(*) > 0 THEN 'Yes' ELSE 'No' END AS found
FROM sales
WHERE region = 'North'

Run on the example rows:

found
Yes

Other databases

MySQL

SELECT CASE WHEN COUNT(*) > 0 THEN 'Yes' ELSE 'No' END AS found
FROM sales
WHERE region = 'North'

SQL Server

SELECT CASE WHEN COUNT(*) > 0 THEN 'Yes' ELSE 'No' END AS found
FROM sales
WHERE region = 'North'

SQLite

SELECT CASE WHEN COUNT(*) > 0 THEN 'Yes' ELSE 'No' END AS found
FROM sales
WHERE region = 'North'

BigQuery

SELECT CASE WHEN COUNT(*) > 0 THEN 'Yes' ELSE 'No' END AS found
FROM sales
WHERE region = 'North'

Snowflake

SELECT CASE WHEN COUNT(*) > 0 THEN 'Yes' ELSE 'No' END AS found
FROM sales
WHERE region = 'North'

Paste your rows into the free tool and it writes this for your columns, then runs it on your data before you copy it. Open the tool ↗