How To Filter In Excel:
Advanced Filters And Autofiler Explained

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

Massive spreadsheets are difficult to bargain with. Searching for the things you lot want can be difficult. Scrolling through thousands of rows is fifty-fifty worse.

Excel's filtering abilities can help.

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

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

Costless video on filters

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

Prefer text over video? Then proceed below!

Get your Costless exercise file

At that place'south a lot of filter functionality to go over, and it'll be much easier to larn if you can follow along.

Grab our free example workbook below and piece of work through information technology with the states!

Download the Gratuitous Practise File

Download exercise file

Using Excel'south AutoFilter

Excel makes it incredibly like shooting fish in a barrel to filter your data. Open up the example workbook and you'll see what I mean.

On the kickoff page, you'll run across that we have a listing of car makes, models, model years, and values. We can use the AutoFilter to get all sorts of data from these columns.

To enable the AutoFilter, click on whatever cell in the table, 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 always doesn't piece of work, highlight the cells in the range you'd like to filter, then click theFilter push.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

Those footling arrows might non seem like much, just they open a lot of power.

Click on the filter arrow in theMake column, and yous'll see lots of options:

filter-options

At the elevation, you'll encounter buttons for sorting your data alphabetically (or in reverse) past the selected column.

There'south alsoSort by Colour, which we covered in our article on sorting, andText Filters, which we'll go to in a moment.

For at present, though, look at the list at the bottom of the popular-up menu. You'll see a list of the different car makes in the list, each with a checkbox next to its name.

Unchecking ane of those boxes filters out that particular brand from the listing. Effort unchecking "Honda," and you'll encounter that the offset entry in the list disappears:

filter-checkbox

Go back in, click on that same box to add a checkmark, and you'll see that the showtime entry comes back.

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

filter-select-all

This removes the check from every entry in the list. Excel won't let yous clickOK if you have a completely empty list, though.

So check the box for BMW and clickOK.

filtered-list

You can see in the image higher up that the filter pointer changed to an epitome of a filter. This reminds you lot which columns have applied filters at any given time.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

ClickClear Filter From "Make" in the carte, and you'll have every ane of the original entries dorsum.

clear-filter

Have notation of the search box directly higher up the list, likewise.

If you start typing the value y'all're looking for, Excel will show y'all the matching values:

filter-search

Filtering by color

If you lot use colors to code your information (perhaps with the always-useful conditional formatting), filtering past color is a great feature to know about.

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

I've filled a few cells with random colors to bear witness you how information technology 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 simply a specific color in your list, click the filter arrow, hover overFilter by Color, and select a color:

filter-color

When you click on a color, yous'll run across merely the cells with a matching fill color:

filtered-color

Y'all can also filter for cells that don't accept a background colour. Just selectNo Fill up from theFilter by Color options.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

To view all your cells again, clickArticulate Filter From "Brand" (or the corresponding name of your own column), and you'll have the entire list once again.

Pro tip: filtering past multiple colors

You might find that y'all don't take the option of selecting multiple colors. This is one identify where filtering past color falls curt of standard filtering. But you can do a flake of a workaround to get a similar effect.

To get started, open the filter carte and go toSort by Color > Custom Sort. Utilize the options here to sort the cell colors in the order yous want them (if you lot need a refresher, check out our article on sorting).

When y'all have them set up how you'd like, clickOK.

sorted-colors

Once you've done that, select the rows that y'all don't want to meet, right-click, and selectHide.

hide-cells

It'southward not an especially elegant solution, justit works.

Filtering for specific text

AutoFilter as well gives y'all the ability to filter for specific strings of text. If y'all want to find all entries that start with a B, for example, you can. Or every entry that doesn't contain the string "gh67."

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

text-filter-begins-with

One time you've made a choice, you'll come across the Custom AutoFilter box:

custom-autofilter

From here, select the blazon of filter you want, enter the relevant search information, and clickOK.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

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

custom-autofilter-example

Later we hitOK, we go a listing of all the cars whose makes start with B or C:

custom-autofilter-results

The other custom text AutoFilter options piece of work the same mode. Select the type of filter yous want, enter the relevant letters or words, and hitOK.

And recall that if you want to access more filtering options than those available in theText Filters bill of fare, clickCustom Filter… at the lesser.

filtered-color

You lot tin also filter for cells that don't take a background color. Just selectNo Make full from theFilter by Color options.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

To view all your cells over again, clickArticulate Filter From "Brand" (or the respective name of your own cavalcade), and you'll have the unabridged list again.

Using number filters

Like the text filters, y'all can access number filters that let you filter for cells that meet certain criteria.

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

number-filters

Equally you can see, there are plenty of options, most of which are self-explanatory. The almost interesting options areTop 10,Above Average, andBelow Average.

And, as with the text filters, you lot tin can employ theCustom Filter… option to create your own filter according to your specifications.

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

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

Advanced filters

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

Click on theAvant-garde button in theSort & Filter section to see what I mean.

advanced-filter-button

You lot'll see a new window with some unfamiliar-sounding fields.

advanced-filter-button

Equally you might expect, theListing range is the data that you lot want filtered.

Criteria range, however, is something we haven't dealt with yet. Instead of only clicking on the items y'all'd similar to see in your filtered list, advanced filters require that you create a criteria range.

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

criteria-range

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

For example, if we type "Fit" in the Model cavalcade, nosotros will filter our list and then that nosotros but see cars with the model proper name "Fit."

To engage the filter, click onAvant-garde over again, click into theCriteria range box, and select F1:H2.

criteria

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

In one case you're done, hitOK to filter.

Try it for yourself! Type in a model proper noun, then open up the advanced filter dialog and select your criteria range. When you hitOK, you'll merely come across a subset that matches your criteria.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

Y'all tin also use logical statements to filter.

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

And you tin utilise wildcards for text, too. "Yard*" would return models that start with Yard, for example.

Pro tip: combining criteria

Now that you understand the basics of using a criteria range, we can talk about some of the more powerful things you can practise.

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

criteria-range-and

Every bit you can see in the screenshot above, we've filtered for any motorcar with a model name that starts with M*AND is worth over $30,000.

If you put criteria in unlike rows, information technology functions every bit an OR statement:

criteria-range-or

In the image to a higher place, we're filtering for whatsoever cars that have 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 advanced filters get really cool.

Here'southward an example:

criteria-range-and-or

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

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

You probably noticed theAction options at the top of the avant-garde filter dialog. In that location are 2 options:Filter the listing, in-identify; andCopy to some other location.

Nosotros've been using the filter-in-place option, but if you desire to re-create the results of your filter to a new location, select the radio push button next to the latter option.

You lot'll besides need to tell Excel where to put the copied list. That's what the final field,Re-create 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 canvas. If you desire it on some other sheet, run the filter, cut the filtered list, and paste information technology on the sheet where you lot'd similar it.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

Finally, in that location'southward theUnique records only checkbox at the bottom. Check this if y'all want to remove duplicates from your copied list.

And don't forget: toclear your avant-garde filter, click theClear push button in theSort & Filter section of the Ribbon.

clear-advanced-filter

Filter like an Excel primary

We know that's a lot of data to take in. But that's considering Excel's filtering capabilities are 2nd-to-none.

Information technology does a lot of the work for you, but if y'all're willing to put in the fourth dimension to acquire how to properly use filters, yous'll be able to slice and die your data in any manner necessary.

Especially if you lot go good at using avant-garde filters. With all the capabilities of AutoFilter, it might seem unnecessary, but in that location may come a mean solar day when it will save you hours of extra work. So don't forget virtually it.

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

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto