excel quotes in formula question

Question

i have a column with this data:

IT_AMPH
IT_BARB
IT_BENZ
IT_BUP
SOMA

i want the column next to it to be literarely

=like "*,IT_AMPH,*"
=like "*,IT_BARB,*"
=like "*,IT_BENZ,*"
etc

please note that i want the equal signed to be displayed, exactly as shown above

what would be the formula for this?

Answer 1

this should do it..

="=like ""*," & othercolumn & ",*"""

Answer 2

="=like ""*," & A1 & ",*"

Excel is smart enough to know that the string you are creating is not itself a formula. Btw, this really belongs on superuser.com instead of stackoverflow.