excel-training-course - Filter

Hi Antonia

Thank you for your question, and apologies for the delay in response.

Filtering is used to be able to reduce down the amount of information that you can see from a list/table in Excel. If you are looking only for rows of data that contain specific information (criteria) from a certain column or columns, then you can apply a filter to temporarily remove from view any rows of data that don't contain the criteria you are looking for.

Most filtering can be done using the AutoFilter feature (Data - Filter - AutoFilter) where you use dropdown arrows at the tops of the columns to be able to select the criteria that you are looking for from a specific column or columns.

The advanced filter is used when you are looking for very specific criteria, that you would not be able to display using the AutoFilter. For example, if you were looking for three different criteria from one column - AutoFilter will only let you display two criteria from a column.

I hope this helps.
Amanda