How To Filter In Excel:
Advanced Filters And Autofiler Explained

Written by co-founder Kasper Langmann, Microsoft Office Specialist.

Massive spreadsheets are difficult to deal with. Searching for the things yous want can be difficult. Scrolling through thousands of rows is even worse.

Excel's filtering abilities can help.

By using AutoFilter and advanced filters, you lot can whittle the visible data downward to just the information you lot want to see. And that makes your chore easier.

*This tutorial is for Excel 2019/Microsoft 365 (for Windows). Got a different version? No problem, you can nevertheless follow the exact aforementioned steps.

Free video on filters

Watch my video and learn how to insert and use filters in Excel.

Prefer text over video? Then keep below!

Go your Complimentary exercise file

In that location'south a lot of filter functionality to go over, and information technology'll be much easier to learn if you can follow along.

Grab our costless example workbook beneath and work through it with the states!

Download the FREE Exercise File

Download exercise file

Using Excel's AutoFilter

Excel makes it incredibly easy to filter your data. Open up the example workbook and you'll come across what I mean.

On the start page, y'all'll come across that nosotros have a list of auto makes, models, model years, and values. Nosotros can utilize the AutoFilter to get all sorts of information from these columns.

To enable the AutoFilter, click on any prison cell in the tabular array, and click theFilter push button in theData tab of theRibbon. Y'all'll see some arrows appear in your header row:

filter-button

If that ever doesn't piece of work, highlight the cells in the range you'd like to filter, so click theFilter button.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

Those little arrows might non seem like much, but they open upwards a lot of ability.

Click on the filter arrow in theBrand column, and y'all'll see lots of options:

filter-options

At the summit, you'll see buttons for sorting your data alphabetically (or in opposite) past the selected column.

There's likewiseSort by Color, which we covered in our commodity on sorting, andText Filters, which nosotros'll get to in a moment.

For now, though, expect at the list at the bottom of the pop-up menu. You'll see a listing of the different auto makes in the list, each with a checkbox next to its name.

Unchecking ane of those boxes filters out that particular make from the listing. Try unchecking "Honda," and you'll see that the first entry in the listing disappears:

filter-checkbox

Go dorsum in, click on that aforementioned box to add a checkmark, and you'll run into that the get-go entry comes back.

Now, try removing the check from the "(Select All)" box.

filter-select-all

This removes the cheque from every entry in the list. Excel won't let you lot clickOK if you accept a completely empty list, though.

So check the box for BMW and clickOK.

filtered-list

Yous can run into in the image above that the filter pointer changed to an image of a filter. This reminds you which columns take practical filters at whatever given time.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

ClickClear Filter From "Brand" in the carte du jour, and you'll take every one of the original entries back.

clear-filter

Take note of the search box directly above the list, as well.

If you offset typing the value yous're looking for, Excel will show you the matching values:

filter-search

Filtering by color

If you use colors to code your information (peradventure with the always-useful provisional formatting), filtering by color is a great feature to know about.

And it's equally easy as you'd await.

I've filled a few cells with random colors to show you how it works.

colored-cells

I used 3 colors here, only filtering works with any number of different colors.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

To view only a specific color in your list, click the filter arrow, hover overFilter by Colour, and select a color:

filter-color

When you click on a color, you'll encounter only the cells with a matching fill color:

filtered-color

You lot can as well filter for cells that don't accept a background colour. Just selectNo Fill up from theFilter past Color options.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

To view all your cells again, clickClear Filter From "Make" (or the respective name of your own column), and you'll accept the entire list again.

Pro tip: filtering past multiple colors

You lot might notice that y'all don't have the option of selecting multiple colors. This is i place where filtering by colour falls short of standard filtering. But you can do a bit of a workaround to get a like effect.

To get started, open up the filter menu and get toSort by Color > Custom Sort. Use the options here to sort the jail cell colors in the social club you lot desire them (if you lot need a refresher, check out our article on sorting).

When yous have them ready up how you'd like, clickOK.

sorted-colors

In one case you've done that, select the rows that yous don't want to encounter, right-click, and selectHide.

hide-cells

Information technology's not an particularly elegant solution, simplyit works.

Filtering for specific text

AutoFilter likewise gives you the power to filter for specific strings of text. If yous desire to find all entries that start with a B, for case, y'all can. Or every entry that doesn't incorporate the string "gh67."

To detect these options, click the filter pointer, clickText Filters, and select an option. We'll selectBegins With…

text-filter-begins-with

Once you've made a selection, you'll meet the Custom AutoFilter box:

custom-autofilter

From here, select the type of filter y'all want, enter the relevant search data, and clickOK.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

For example, if we want to find the values in the Brand column that offset with B or C, we'd run the AutoFilter similar this:

custom-autofilter-example

After we strikingOK, we get a list of all the cars whose makes offset with B or C:

custom-autofilter-results

The other custom text AutoFilter options piece of work the aforementioned way. Select the blazon of filter you want, enter the relevant letters or words, and hitOK.

And call back that if you want to admission more filtering options than those bachelor in theText Filters menu, clickCustom Filter… at the bottom.

filtered-color

You can also filter for cells that don't have a background colour. Merely selectNo Fill up from theFilter by Color options.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

To view all your cells again, clickClear Filter From "Make" (or the corresponding name of your own cavalcade), and you'll have the entire listing over again.

Using number filters

Similar the text filters, you tin access number filters that let y'all filter for cells that meet sure criteria.

Click on the arrow in theValue column, and selectNumber Filters.

number-filters

Equally yous tin encounter, there are enough of options, near of which are cocky-explanatory. The most interesting options areHeight 10,Higher up Average, andBelow Average.

And, equally with the text filters, y'all can use theCustom Filter… option to create your ain filter according to your specifications.

Try creating a few number filters to find cars that are worth more than $20,000 and cars that are worth between $fifteen,000 and $17,000.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

Advanced filters

With these powerful tools, you might exist wondering what more you lot could possibly get from "advanced" filters. And there are actually quite a few things.

Click on theAdvanced button in theSort & Filter section to see what I mean.

advanced-filter-button

You'll come across a new window with some unfamiliar-sounding fields.

advanced-filter-button

As you might expect, theList range is the data that you want filtered.

Criteria range, all the same, is something we haven't dealt with withal. Instead of but clicking on the items yous'd like to see in your filtered listing, avant-garde filters require that yous create a criteria range.

Here's how nosotros'll set that up. In cells F1, G1, and H1, type "Model," "Yr," and "Value."

criteria-range

We can now use these columns to create our filter criteria.

For instance, if we type "Fit" in the Model column, we will filter our list so that we only run across cars with the model name "Fit."

To appoint the filter, click onAdvanced again, click into theCriteria range box, and select F1:H2.

criteria

Note that yous tin type in the criteria range or click-and-drag to select it.

Once you're done, hitOK to filter.

Try it for yourself! Blazon in a model proper noun, then open the advanced filter dialog and select your criteria range. When you hitOK, you'll only see a subset that matches your criteria.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

You can also utilise logical statements to filter.

For example, you can put ">30000" in the Value cavalcade to filter for cars that are worth more than $30,000.

And yous can use wildcards for text, as well. "Chiliad*" would return models that starting time with M, for example.

Pro tip: combining criteria

Now that you lot empathise the basics of using a criteria range, we tin can talk about some of the more powerful things you tin do.

Including two different criteria on the same row, for example, is equivalent to filtering for an AND logical statement:

criteria-range-and

As you tin can see in the screenshot higher up, we've filtered for whatsoever car with a model proper name that starts with M*AND is worth over $30,000.

If you put criteria in different rows, it functions equally an OR statement:

criteria-range-or

In the prototype above, we're filtering for any cars that accept the model name "Fit,"OR that were made in 2000,OR that are worth less than $50,000.

Combining the AND and OR functionalities is where avant-garde filters get really cool.

Here's an example:

criteria-range-and-or

This filter will return any car that was fabricated in 2000AND is worth more than $40,000,OR has a name that starts with MAND is worth more than $40,000.

You lot tin combine many different AND and OR statements in this manner.

Yous probably noticed theAction options at the top of the advanced filter dialog. There are ii options:Filter the list, in-place; andCopy to another location.

Nosotros've been using the filter-in-place choice, merely if you want to copy the results of your filter to a new location, select the radio push next to the latter option.

You'll as well need to tell Excel where to put the copied list. That's what the last field,Copy to, is for. Type or click to tell Excel where it should put the newly copied list.

copy-to

Excel simply lets you copy a filtered list to the current sheet. If you want it on another sheet, run the filter, cut the filtered list, and paste it on the sail where you lot'd like it.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

Finally, there'due south theUnique records just checkbox at the bottom. Check this if you lot want to remove duplicates from your copied listing.

And don't forget: toclear your advanced filter, click theClear button in theSort & Filter department of the Ribbon.

clear-advanced-filter

Filter similar an Excel master

We know that's a lot of information to accept in. Just that's considering Excel'southward filtering capabilities are second-to-none.

Information technology does a lot of the work for yous, but if you're willing to put in the fourth dimension to learn how to properly use filters, you'll exist able to slice and dice your data in whatever mode necessary.

Especially if you get good at using avant-garde filters. With all the capabilities of AutoFilter, it might seem unnecessary, but there may come a day when information technology volition save you hours of actress piece of work. Then don't forget virtually information technology.

As with annihilation in Excel, filtering takes a while to get the hang of. But stick with it, and you'll seriously step up your Excel game!

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto