• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer

My Online Training Hub

Learn Dashboards, Excel, Power BI, Power Query, Power Pivot

  • Courses
  • Pricing
    • Free Courses
    • Power BI Course
    • Excel Power Query Course
    • Power Pivot and DAX Course
    • Excel Dashboard Course
    • Excel PivotTable Course – Quick Start
    • Advanced Excel Formulas Course
    • Excel Expert Advanced Excel Training
    • Excel Tables Course
    • Excel, Word, Outlook
    • Financial Modelling Course
    • Excel PivotTable Course
    • Excel for Customer Service Professionals
    • Excel for Operations Management Course
    • Excel for Decision Making Under Uncertainty Course
    • Excel for Finance Course
    • Excel Analysis ToolPak Course
    • Multi-User Pricing
  • Resources
    • Free Downloads
    • Excel Functions Explained
    • Excel Formulas
    • Excel Add-ins
    • IF Function
      • Excel IF Statement Explained
      • Excel IF AND OR Functions
      • IF Formula Builder
    • Time & Dates in Excel
      • Excel Date & Time
      • Calculating Time in Excel
      • Excel Time Calculation Tricks
      • Excel Date and Time Formatting
    • Excel Keyboard Shortcuts
    • Excel Custom Number Format Guide
    • Pivot Tables Guide
    • VLOOKUP Guide
    • ALT Codes
    • Excel VBA & Macros
    • Excel User Forms
    • VBA String Functions
  • Members
    • Login
  • Blog
  • Excel Webinars
  • Excel Forum
    • Register as Forum Member
  • Login

Excel Advanced Filters

You are here: Home / Excel / Excel Advanced Filters
Excel Advanced Filters
April 18, 2013 by Mynda Treacy

To be honest I don’t use Advanced Filters much. I tend to use the regular AutoFilter, or if I need more I’ll use the Custom AutoFilter. Not because they’re necessarily better, it’s probably more out of habit than anything else.   But Advanced Filters have a couple of advantages over regular filters:   Excel Advanced Filters

  1. The filter criteria is contained on your worksheet so you can easily see what filters are applied. Whereas with AutoFilter you have to click on the down arrow to see what filters have been applied.
  2. Advanced Filters allow you to extract your filtered data to another place in your worksheet/workbook or extract a unique list of records.

Their downside is it’s not as obvious that your data is filtered since they don’t display drop-down lists for the column headers like regular filters.

Take this list below that has an Advanced Filter applied as an example. The only tell-tale sign that some of the data is hidden are the blue row numbers.

Excel Advanced Filters

How to use Advanced Filters

Make Space for Your Criteria

First of all you need to house your criteria (the rules for your filter) somewhere on your worksheet. I like to put it above my data for two reasons:

  1. It’s in a nice obvious place which will hopefully remind me or other users that a filter is applied (in case those blinding blue row numbers don’t catch my eye!).
  2. Your criteria must have a header row just as your table of data has and they must be exactly the same (except it’s not case sensitive), so I find it easy just to copy and paste the column headers from my data table for my Criteria range. Note: you don’t have to represent every column in your Criteria, but since I only have a few columns it’s just as easy to copy them all at this stage.

So go ahead and insert a few rows above your data and copy and paste your column headers like this:

Excel Advanced Filters

Enter Your Criteria

Let’s start with any easy one and filter any records that have the text Biscuit OR Bread in the Group column. We do this by listing each of our criterion in separate cells under the corresponding heading in our Criteria range:

Excel Advanced Filters

Now to apply the Advanced Filter place your cursor anywhere in your data table (this helps Excel detect your ‘List range’) > click on the Advanced Filter icon on the Data tab of the ribbon.

Excel Advanced Filters

This will open the Advanced Filter dialog box:

Excel Advanced Filters

Make sure your 'List range' and 'Criteria range' are correct and click OK.

Tips:

  1. If you want to extract a list and copy it to another place in the existing worksheet simply select the ‘Copy to another location’ button and tell Excel where you want to ‘Copy to’. Note: if you want to copy it to a different worksheet follow these instructions.
  2. Make sure you don’t select any blank rows in your criteria range otherwise your filter won’t work.
  3. The first time you apply an advanced filter Excel creates a named range for your criteria called…wait for it….’Criteria’. The only problem with it is that it doesn’t grow/contract as you add or remove criteria. However, you can edit it in the name manager and make it a dynamic named range.

Advanced Criteria

Moving on…. the example above looks at how entering two or more criteria for one column is the same as the OR logic you might already be familiar with.  i.e. Group = Biscuits OR Group = Bread.

Let’s look at some other scenarios.

AND Logic

The criteria in the image below reads:

Filter data where Group = Biscuit AND Stock > 15000 OR Group = Bread.

Criteria entered on the same row is treated as AND, whereas criteria entered in the same column is treated as OR.

Excel Advanced Filters

OR Criteria for Multiple Columns

The criteria in the image below reads:

Filter data where Group = Biscuit OR Stock >15000

We can see that the data is displaying all of the Biscuit data as well as Cracker and Bread records where their Stock is >15000.

Excel Advanced Filters

Greater Than AND Less Than

The criteria in the image below reads:

Filter the data where the Price is greater than $1.50 AND less than $2.01.

Note how I have two ‘Price’ columns in my Criteria.

Excel Advanced Filters

Using Wildcards in your Criteria

You can get creative with your criteria and employ wildcards to allow broader searches or be more specific.

Excel Advanced Filters

Using Formulas in your Criteria

Let’s say we want to filter all Values that are greater than the average Value.

Excel Advanced Filters

The reference to F6 in the formula =F6>AVERAGE($F$6:$F$23) is simply the first row of the data range I want to base my filter on.

Case Sensitive Filters

Case sensitive filters are just another type of Formula Criteria that evaluates to TRUE or FALSE. To perform a case sensitive filter you use the EXACT function like this:

Excel Advanced Filters

Notes:

  1. The criteria label in this example is ‘Exact Match’, not ‘Group’ like you might expect. You could leave the criteria label blank or give it a different name, but it can’t be Group or any other column label from your data table.
  2. As with the formula criteria, the reference to B6 in this formula =EXACT(B6,"biscuit") is also the first row of the data range I want to base my filter on.

Filtering Specific Text

In all of the examples above (except Case Sensitive filters), I have entered the Group criteria by typing the name in the cell like so; 'Biscuit', 'Bread' etc.

But if you have several groups that all contain the word  ‘biscuit’ in their name e.g. Biscuit, Biscuit Savoury and Biscuit Sweet , then Excel will display all 3 since they all start with the word ‘biscuit’.

However, if you want to filter the records for an exact match you can use the EXACT function as I did above or you can enter your criterion like this:

="=biscuit"

See how in the cell B2 Excel only displays the portion of the text in the double quotes but in the formula bar you can see I have entered ="=biscuit":

Excel Advanced Filters

What Do You Think?

If you liked this please share it with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or +1 on Google using the buttons below, or leave me a comment and tell me what you use Advanced Filters for.

Excel Advanced Filters
Mynda Treacy

Microsoft MVP logo

AUTHOR Mynda Treacy Co-Founder / Owner at My Online Training Hub

CIMA qualified Accountant with over 25 years experience in roles such as Global IT Financial Controller for investment banking firms Barclays Capital and NatWest Markets.

Mynda has been awarded Microsoft MVP status every year since 2014 for her expertise and contributions to educating people about Microsoft Excel.

Mynda teaches several courses here at MOTH including Excel Expert, Excel Dashboards, Power BI, Power Query and Power Pivot.

More Excel Posts

8 Excel in-built AI Tools

Built-in Excel AI Tools

Clean, analyze and visualize data with these Official Excel AI tools by Microsoft. Including formula writing, PivotTables, Charts and more.
excel date and time

Excel Date and Time

Everything you need to know about Excel date and time. Includes comprehensive workbook with every date and time function, plus PDF version.
10 mistakes to avoid when using excel formatting

10 Mistakes to Avoid With Excel Formatting

These are the Excel formatting habits that drive me crazy and what you should do instead to ensure you use formatting effectively.
linear regression

Excel Linear Regression

Excel linear regression is easy with the built-in tools. Use charts to plot linear regression or use the Data Analysis Toolpak.
speed up slow excel files

How to Improve Excel Performance

How to improve Excel performance and the various causes of slow Excel files so you can speed up Excel and avoid problems in future.
Securely Share Excel Files

Securely Share Excel Files

Securely share Excel files stored locally, on OneDrive or SharePoint. Prevent editing or downloading, specify who can open and edit the file.
excel check boxes

Interactive Excel Check Boxes

Excel check boxes are interactive elements you can link to formulas, charts, conditional formatting and more.
tips for working in multiple excel files

Hacks for Working in Multiple Excel Files

Awesome tips for navigating, arranging and working in multiple Excel files. Guaranteed to streamline your workflow and increase productivity.
chatgpt for excel

ChatGPT for Excel

Using ChatGPT for Excel can be hit and miss. Learn the best uses for ChatGPT to make your Excel life easier and what to avoid using it for.
excel templates

Where to Find Free Excel Templates

Where to find free Excel templates and how to create your own Excel templates. Using templates saves time and effort.


Category: Excel
Previous Post:No More Back and Forth Between TabsNo More Back and Forth Between Tabs
Next Post:Excel Step ChartsExcel Step Charts

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anahita

    August 26, 2017 at 4:48 am

    You are a GREAT teacher. Love how you think of all types of circumstances and explain how they can be done. Well done!

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      August 26, 2017 at 6:18 pm

      Thanks, Anahita 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it.

      Reply
  2. Bill

    June 28, 2016 at 12:33 am

    One more thing with using the advanced filter I have noticed. Usually filtering a long list the cursor never goes to the top of the list. Have you found this to be true as well? I would like to know how (in the most simple form) to get the cursor to go to the top of the filter’d results.

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      June 28, 2016 at 9:17 am

      Hi Bill,

      Do you mean after you apply the filter the cursor doesn’t automatically return to the top of the list or do you mean you can’t go to the first cell in the list?

      Mynda

      Reply
  3. Julian

    August 7, 2015 at 12:08 pm

    I got the required solution from this blog this morning, it’s quite helpful.

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      August 7, 2015 at 12:13 pm

      Thanks, Julian. Glad we could help.

      Mynda

      Reply
  4. Ronald Stepp

    July 13, 2015 at 11:10 pm

    In “Tips 2.” Make sure you don’t select any blank rows in your criteria range otherwise your filter won’t work.

    But your Criteria range includes cells that are blank, I am confused as this seems contradictory..

    Thanks

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      July 13, 2015 at 11:27 pm

      Hi Ronald,

      In which example does the criteria range include cells that are blank?

      Kind regards,

      Mynda

      Reply
      • Ronald Stepp

        July 14, 2015 at 12:49 am

        never mind, I think I figured it out…

        Thanks for the reply back.

        Reply
  5. Wanda

    April 1, 2014 at 9:53 am

    Perfect sense. Thanks kindly!

    Reply
  6. Wanda

    March 30, 2014 at 8:58 am

    Are the tables displaying the data for the “AND Logic” and the table displaying the data for the “OR Criteria for Multiple Columns” supposed to be displaying the results… because they don’t. The “And Logic” has 4 rows of bread less than 15000 where your criteria was >15000. The “OR Criteria for Multiple Columns” has 4 rows that are less than 15000. You stated above that we can see that the data is displaying all of the Biscuit data as well as Cracker and Bread records where their Stock is >15000; this isn’t a true statement.

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      March 30, 2014 at 9:56 pm

      Hi Wanda,

      Each criteria row is considered separately. So, the first row filters biscuits AND with stock > 15000 and the next row is considered OR. i.e. OR bread. The bread isn’t filtered > 15000. Cell D3 has no criteria so all stock for Bread are shown.

      In English the filter criteria reads:

      Filter rows that contain the Group ‘Biscuits’ AND where stock is > 15000, OR where the Group is ‘Bread’.

      Hope that makes sense.

      Mynda.

      Reply
  7. Julie Kirk

    June 3, 2013 at 10:47 pm

    If you have a list of records contained in a range of cells it is possible to extract all records that meet a specified set of criteria and place them elsewhere in your workbook. For example in a list of names and personal details you could find everyone who works for a particular organisation and has a birthday in June. This is a much smarter alternative to sorting, resorting, copying and pasting the data.

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      June 4, 2013 at 8:28 pm

      Hi Julie,

      You can use the Advanced Filters tool to do this.

      Kind regards,

      Mynda.

      Reply
  8. Vipul

    April 22, 2013 at 3:20 am

    Great! I am on my way to becoming an Excel guru!

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      April 22, 2013 at 9:24 pm

      Cheers, Vipul 🙂

      Reply
  9. Joseph Mercieca

    April 20, 2013 at 2:41 am

    This kind of filtering is very useful. I like to work with excel and normally use autofilter as I did not know how this work before. You explained it so well that it was easy to try it out. Thanks for sharing this and the good work.

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      April 21, 2013 at 7:18 pm

      Thank you, Joseph 🙂

      Reply
  10. pmsocho

    April 19, 2013 at 5:34 pm

    I also use regular AutoFilter most of the time because it’s quick and easy but the advanced filter is sometimes a MUST. Think about filtering such group of data:

    Biscuit with prices < 2,7 and Bread with prices < 2

    The above criteria are very simple but AutoFilter fails with them 🙂

    And the real power of advanced filtering is the ability to use formulas as criteria…

    Reply
    • Carlo Estopia

      April 19, 2013 at 7:13 pm

      Hi pmsocho,

      Thanks for sharing.

      Cheers,

      CarloE

      Reply
  11. Srinivas

    April 19, 2013 at 11:21 am

    It is very nice & useful. As we can see what filters have been applied, we have can easily understand what is the filtered data saying about..

    Reply
    • Carlo Estopia

      April 19, 2013 at 3:31 pm

      Cheers Srnivas on behalf of Mynda. 🙂

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Current ye@r *

Leave this field empty

Sidebar

More results...

Popular Content

  • 10 Common Excel Mistakes to Avoid
  • Top Excel Functions for Data Analysts
  • Secrets to Building Excel Dashboards in Less Than 15 Minutes
  • Pro Excel Formula Writing Tips
  • Hidden Excel Double-Click Shortcuts
  • Top 10 Intermediate Excel Functions
  • 5 Pro Excel Dashboard Design Tips
  • 5 Excel SUM Function Tricks
  • 239 Excel Keyboard Shortcuts

100 Excel Tips and Tricks eBook

Download Free Tips & Tricks

239 Excel Keyboard Shortcuts

Download Free PDF

mynda treacy microsoft mvpHi, I'm Mynda Treacy and I run MOTH with my husband, Phil. Through our blog, webinars, YouTube channel and courses we hope we can help you learn Excel, Power Pivot and DAX, Power Query, Power BI, and Excel Dashboards.

Blog Categories

  • Excel
  • Excel Charts
  • Excel Dashboard
  • Excel Formulas
  • Excel Office Scripts
  • Excel PivotTables
  • Excel Shortcuts
  • Excel VBA
  • General Tips
  • Online Training
  • Outlook
  • Power Apps
  • Power Automate
  • Power BI
  • Power Pivot
  • Power Query
microsoft mvp logo
trustpilot excellent rating
Secured by Sucuri Badge
MyOnlineTrainingHub on YouTube Mynda Treacy on Linked In Mynda Treacy on Instagram Mynda Treacy on Twitter Mynda Treacy on Pinterest MyOnlineTrainingHub on Facebook

Sign up to our newsletter and join over 400,000
others who learn Excel and Power BI with us.

 

Company

  • About My Online Training Hub
  • Disclosure Statement
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Guarantee
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Testimonials
  • Become an Affiliate
  • Sponsor Our Newsletter

Support

  • Contact
  • Forum
  • Helpdesk – For Technical Issues

Copyright © 2023 · My Online Training Hub · All Rights Reserved. Microsoft and the Microsoft Office logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Product names, logos, brands, and other trademarks featured or referred to within this website are the property of their respective trademark holders.

Download A Free Copy of 100 Excel Tips & Tricks

excel tips and tricks ebook

We respect your privacy. We won’t spam you.

x