Try one of these:

=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("abc",A1)),"in there","not there")
or
=IF(COUNTIF(A1,"*abc*"),"in there","not there")

Does that help?

***********
Regards,
Ron

XL2002, WinXP-Pro


"Harley" wrote:

How do I include * in an IF statement? For example, how do I write
=IF(A1="*abc*","in there", "not there") when "abc" is contained anywhere in
the string in cell A1?

TIA