What are the different kinds of filters ? And how can they be useful ?

  The aim of the filtering features is to isolate a group of records in a table like Excel data range according to a set of criteria combining different column values.

   There are mainly 2 types of filters :

• Automatic filters
• Élaborated filters

  The "Automatic filters" (accessible via the menu : Data > Filter > Automatic Filter) allows applying "drop list" type filters to a group of columns in an Excel sheet

   In practice, the first step consists in selecting the data on which the data must be applied. The use of the Automatic Filter will add drop down arrows on the top row of the data selection. Clicking on this arrow will give access to different kind of filters that can be applied on the data.   Among the different options, the dropdown list displays the list of the different values featured in the selecte data column, allowing the selection of a particular value, which will select the rows of the data selection matching this value. Other options allow selecting values that follow a specific text patern ("Starts with", "End with",...) for a text based column or that matches a numeric condition ("Is Greater","is Between") for numerical columns.

  The "Elaborated filter" (accessible via the Menu : Data > Filter > Elaborated Filter ) allows applying custom filters to a group of data columns in Excel.
  Compared to Automatic filters, it's necessary to define the source data area as well as a filter range composed of several rows were the filtering criterias will be entered. Each ligne represent a "OR" condition with regard to the other rows.

  The result, the filtered data, can be display either in place (the rows not matching the criterias are hidden) or in a separate sheet. This last option is particularly useful to set up a search form in Excel that reads a "read-only" data zone.
  If necessary, the criteria area and the result area can be placed in separated dedicated sheets, a part from the one containing the data. This data sheet can be hidden and even write protected to avoid direct change by the user.