Applying Data Filters in Excel

by Linda Johnson

Many people think they need extensive formulas in Excel to display specific parts of their data. But, usually this can be accomplished much easier by simply applying filters. And most of what you want to do can be achieved with Excel's AutoFilter command.

Here are some examples to show you how easily you can apply data filtering. Let's say you have a spreadsheet with the title in Row 1 and column headings in Row 2 and your data looked something like this:

Click in any cell in row 2 and go to the Data Menu and select Filter, then AutoFilter and you will see dropdown arrows in every cell in row 2:

Click the dropdown arrow in the Department Cell and see a list of everything that is included in that column. Choose "B" from the list:

Now your data has been filtered to only show the people in Department B:

Click the Department dropdown arrow again and select All to remove the filter.

Click the Q1 Sales dropdown arrow and select Custom. In this box, choose is greater than from the first dropdown box and type 25000 in the second box. Click OK.

Your data has now been filtered to show only those salespeople whose sales are greater than $25,000.

Remove the filter by returning to the Q1 Sales dropdown and select All. You could also filter this data to show only those sales people in Dept B whose sales are greater than $25,000. Simply apply one filter, then apply the second one without removing the first. Excel will continue to filter your data, with the second filter being applied to the results of the first filter.

To remove all filters, click on the appropriate column dropdown arrows and select All. Then go back to the Data Menu and click on AutoFilter to remove the dropdown arrows completely.

For more tutorials on Excel and other Office programs, Linda offers eBooks and Online Classes. Check them out here.