Applying Advanced Filters
-
Copy the column headers of the sheet ranges to be filtered into an empty area of the sheet, and then enter the criteria for the filter in a row beneath the headers. Horizontally arranged data in a row will always be logically connected with AND, and vertically arranged data in a column will always be logically connected with OR.
-
Once you have created a filter matrix, select the sheet ranges to be filtered. Open the Advanced Filter dialogue box by choosing Data - More Filters - Advanced Filter, and define the filter conditions.
-
Then click OK, and you will see that only the rows from the original sheet whose contents have met the search criteria are still visible. All other rows are temporarily hidden and can be made to reappear with the Format - Rows - Show command.
Example
Load a spreadsheet with a large number of records. We are using a fictional Turnover document, but you can just as easily use any other document. The document has the following layout:
| A | B | C | D | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Month | Standard | Business | Luxury | Suite |
| 2 | January | 125600 | 200500 | 240000 | 170000 |
| 3 | February | 160000 | 180300 | 362000 | 220000 |
| 4 | March | 170000 | and so on... |
Copy row 1 with the row headers (field names), to row 20, for example. Enter the filter conditions linked with OR in rows 21, 22, and so on.
| A | B | C | D | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | Month | Standard | Business | Luxury | Suite |
| 21 | January | ||||
| 22 | <160000 |
Specify that only rows which either have the value January in the Month cells OR a value of under 160000 in the Standard cells will be displayed.
Choose Data - More Filters - Advanced Filter, and then select the range A20:E22. After you click OK, only the filtered rows will be displayed. The other rows will be hidden from view.