Filtering your data is much more powerful than simply sorting it. Instead of being limited to three columns as you are for a sort, you can filter on any or all columns in your table. Filtering removes from view any record that doesn’t match your criteria (but not from the database or worksheet). When you’re done, you can restore all the records to view. The AutoFilter feature in Excel enables you to apply the filtering. To filter your data, follow these steps:

1. Select any cell in the database.
2. Select Data?Sort & Filter?Filter from the Ribbon. By default, the field (column) names for any table that you’ve designated already include AutoFilter buttons for filtering the data, so you can skip this step.
3. To filter by an entry in a field, click the column’s AutoFilter drop-down arrow, and then click the to check the entry to match. Figure 19-16 shows an AutoFilter drop-down menu. If needed, you can click the Select All choice to clear all the checks, and then click a single check box to filter by that value.
   
4. To create a more general filter, click the Number Filters choice, click one of the choices in the submenu that appears (Figure 19-17), specify the filter criteria in the Custom AutoFilter dialog box that appears (Figure 19-18), and then click OK to apply the filter. The
   field name appears in the dialog box, with the comparison operator you selected from the submenu already specified, as well. You can either select a value from the drop-down list on the right or type in a value of your own.
5. Specify another criterion if desired. When you add a second criterion for filtering, you have the option of using either a logical And or logical Or. With And, both criteria must be true; with Or, either criterion can be true. Click either the And or the Or radio button to select it.
6. Click OK to implement the filtering.

FIGURE 19-17
This submenu offers choices for creating a custom AutoFilter.

FIGURE 19-18
Specify the Custom AutoFilter criteria here.

To remove the filtering so that all the rows are visible, either select Clear Filters From from the drop-downmenus of each filtered field or select Data?Sort & Filter?Clear in the Ribbon. To turn off AutoFilter, select Data?Sort & Filter?Filter from the Ribbon.

• OZ Lotto – Player's Guide OZ Lotto is the lottery game played in Australia on Tuesday evenings. The draws are run at approximately 8:30pm AEST...
• Wasted Time On the subject of time and the perceived passing of a life, all that constitutes our life endures in memory....
• Choose the Right Replacement Furnace Filter What kind of replacement furnace filter to buy isn't something most of us give much thought to. But you should...
• GPS Golf Guru 4 Precise GPS/PDA Golf Rangefinder with Multi-application capabilities User Reviews Send this to a friend GPS Golf Guru 4 Precise GPS/PDA Golf Rangefinder with Multi-application capabilities Manufacturer: GPS...
• Excel How-to: Creating a Pivot Table A pivot table is a merely a summary of data in a format that you can manipulate to suit your...