How To Sort And Filter In Excel

Sorting and filtering information offers a mode to cut through the noise and find (and sort) just the information you want to see. Microsoft Excel has no shortage of options to filter down huge datasets into just what'south needed.

How to Sort Information in an Excel Spreadsheet

In Excel, click within the cell atop the column you want to sort.

In our case, nosotros're going to click jail cell D3 and sort this column by salary.

cel d3

From the "Information" tab on superlative of the ribbon, click "Filter."

Atop each column, you'll at present run across an pointer. Click the arrow of the column you wish to sort to bring upwards a card that enables the states to sort or filter the data.

sorting arrow

The first and most obvious way to sort data is from smallest to largest or largest to smallest, bold yous have numerical data.

In this instance, we're sorting salaries, then we'll sort from smallest to largest by clicking the top option.

sort smallest to largest

We tin apply the aforementioned sorting to any of the other columns, sorting by the date of hire, for example, past selecting the "Sort Oldest to Newest" option in the same menu.

sort oldest to newest

These sorting options also piece of work for the historic period and proper noun columns. We tin can sort by oldest to youngest in age, for instance, or adapt employee names alphabetically by clicking the same pointer and choosing the appropriate option.

sort a to z

How to Filter Information in Excel

Click the arrow next to "Salary" to filter this column. In this example, nosotros're going to filter out anyone who makes more $100,000 per yr.

sorting arrow

Considering our list is brusque, we can do this a couple of ways. The first manner, which works keen in our example, is just to uncheck each person who makes more than $100,000 and and so printing "OK." This will remove three entries from our list and enables us to encounter (and sort) just those that remain.

uncheck boxes

There's some other fashion to do this. Permit'due south click the arrow adjacent to "Salary" in one case more.

sorting arrow

This fourth dimension we'll click "Number Filters" from the filtering carte and so "Less Than."

number filters less than

Here we tin can also filter our results, removing anyone who makes over $100,000 per year. But this way works much ameliorate for big information sets where you might have to do a lot of transmission clicking to remove entries. To the correct of the dropdown box that says "is less than," enter "100,000" (or whatsoever effigy yous want to use) and then press "OK."

100,000 ok

We tin utilize this filter for a number of other reasons, too. For example, we can filter out all salaries that are above boilerplate past clicking "Below Average" from the same menu (Number Filters > Below Boilerplate).

filter below average

We can also combine filters. Here we'll find all salaries greater than $60,000, but less than $120,000. Beginning, we'll select "is greater than" in the first dropdown box.

filter greater than

In the dropdown below the previous 1, choose "is less than."

filter less than

Side by side to "is greater than" we'll put in $sixty,000.

60,000 ok

Side by side to "is less than" add $120,000.

Click "OK" to filter the information, leaving only salaries greater than $60,000 and less than $120,000.

press ok

How to Filter Data from Multiple Columns at Once

In this example, we're going to filter by appointment hired, and salary. We'll expect specifically for people hired afterward 2013, and with a bacon of less than $lxx,000 per twelvemonth.

Click the arrow adjacent to "Salary" to filter out anyone who makes $70,000 or more per year.

sorting arrow

Click "Number Filters" and and then "Less Than."

number filters less than

Add together "seventy,000" next to "is less than" and then printing "OK."

Next, nosotros're going to filter by the appointment each employee was hired, excluding those hired subsequently 2013. To get started, click the pointer next to "Date Hired" and so cull "Date Filters" and and then "After."

date filter after

Type "2013" into the field to the right of "is after" and so press "OK." This will leave yous but with employees who both brand less than $70,000 per twelvemonth who and were hired in 2014 or later.

year 2013 press ok

Excel has a number of powerful filtering options, and each is as customizable every bit you lot'd need it to be. With a little imagination, y'all can filter huge datasets down to only the pieces of information that matter.