If you’ve got a long list of sales orders on an Excel worksheet, how can you send one sales rep’s orders to a different sheet? There are lots of creative ways to do that, but my favourite solution is to use an Excel Advanced Filter. Would you use that solution too, or something different?
Advanced Filter Button
Advanced filters are one of Excel’s most under-rated and under-used features, and we can blame the Excel Ribbon for that.
Here’s the proof. If you didn’t already know how awesome Advanced Filters are, would you click that “Advanced” button on the Ribbon’s Data tab?
“Ooooh – Options for filtering using complex criteria! Let me try that!”
Said no one, ever.
Advanced Filter Dialog Box
For the adventurous few Excel users who DO click that Advanced button, here’s the hidden “treasure” that they discover – a tiny, confusing, old-fashioned dialog box.
Most people will click the X at the top right corner, and never go back there again!
Why Bother With Advanced Filters?
Since Advanced Filters look so confusing and complex, why should you bother learning how to use them?
The best thing about Advanced Filters is that they can:
- magically send data to a different worksheet
- based on simple or complex criteria
- without using macros!
Advanced Filter Setting to Send Data
Here’s an example of the filter setting you’d enter, to send data to a different sheet, if the customer name is MegaMart
With the settings in the screen shot below, the filter will:
- Send a copy of the data
- from Table1
- to the sheet named Filtered Data, starting in cell A1
- based on the criteria in cell F1:F2
In the criteria range:
- Cell F1 has a column heading from Table1 – Customer
- Cell F2 has a customer name – MegaMart
List of Unique Records
The second-best thing about Advanced Filters is that they can create a list of unique records, using one column or multiple columns.
Here’s an example of the filter setting you’d enter, to send a unique list of customer names to a different sheet
With the settings in the screen shot below, the filter will:
- Send a copy of the data
- from the Customer column of Table 1
- to the sheet named Filtered Data, starting in cell A1
- with NO criteria
- sending unique records only
Advanced Filter Macros
Advanced filters work well with macros too, and they’re lightning fast! There are sample files on my Contextures site that you can test, to see how speedy Advanced Filters are.
One sample file – Send List to Sheet or File (Specific Settings) – has buttons on the worksheet, so it’s easy for you to test the macros.
Flexible Filter Macro
Here’s a screen shot from the Send List to Sheets (Flexible) sample file. When you run the macro in this workbook, it prompts you to enter a column name. You could choose a different column each time, to create whatever data extracts you need.
I typed “region”, and the macro ran two Advanced Filters:
- Created a unique list of regions
- Sent each region’s data to a new sheet, named for that region
Try Advanced Filters
If you haven’t tried Advanced Filters yet, I hope you’ll give them a chance! There are basic steps and a video on my Advanced Filters Intro page.
If you’re ready to try the macros, get the sample files on the Advanced Filter Macros page, and see how quick and efficient Advanced Filters are at extracting data.
Video: Send Data to Different Sheet
With an advanced filter, you can extract data to a different sheet. Watch this video to see the steps.
There are written steps on the Advanced Filters page, and sample files to download
_______________________________
Send Data to Different Sheets in Excel Based on Criteria
_______________________________