Chapter 22

AutoFilter

Filtering is an easy and very fast way to find—and work—with subsets of data in a table and/or database. A filtered table displays only the rows that meet the conditions you itemize or specify for a column or a number of columns. There are several improvements to the Excel 2010 and 2007 AutoFilter, including new options that allow you to filter by color or cell formatting.

To activate the AutoFilter, first select a single cell or a region in the table/database, as shown in Figure 22.1 for the sheet named Database in the Chapter 22 workbook file. There are three ways to activate the AutoFilter:

FIGURE 22.1 Three Ways to Activate the AutoFilter

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1. Under the Data ribbon, click on the AutoFilter icon.
2. Under the Home ribbon, click on the Sort and Filter icon and select Filter.
3. Right-click a cell value you want to filter with, and select Filter by Selected Cell’s Value in the local menu.

Filtered data will display only the rows that meet criteria or conditions you specify in your query/filter. It will hide rows that you do not want displayed.

Using the AutoFilter feature, you can create different types of filters: value, format/color, text, dates, and so on.

A drop-down arrow ↓ means that filtering is enabled but not applied. A Filter button ↓ means that a filter was applied.

Try not to mix formats like text and numbers or numbers and dates in the same ...

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