You can use the following formula in Excel to find the first column with a non-zero value in a particular row:
=INDEX(B$1:E$1,MATCH(TRUE,INDEX(B2:E2<>0,),0))
This particular formula finds the first value in the row B2:E2 with a non-zero value and returns the corresponding column name from the row B1:E1.
The following example shows how to use this formula in practice.
Example: Find First Non-Zero Value in Row in Excel
Suppose we have the following dataset in Excel that shows the number of fouls by a basketball team in each quarter of eight different games:
Suppose we would like to find the first quarter in which a foul occurred in each game.
In other words, we would like to find the first non-zero value in each row and return the corresponding column name.
We can type the following formula into cell F2 to do so:
=INDEX(B$1:E$1,MATCH(TRUE,INDEX(B2:E2<>0,),0))
We can then click and drag this formula down to each remaining cell in column F:
Column F now displays the first quarter with a non-zero value in each row.
For example, in Game 1 the first foul occurred in Quarter 3 so cell F2 returns a value of Quarter 3:
Note: If every value in a given row is zero then this formula will simply return #N/A since no non-zero value could be found.
Additional Resources
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in Excel:
Excel: How to Remove Specific Text from Cells
Excel: A Formula for MID From Right
Excel: How to Use MID Function for Variable Length Strings
