Analyzing Your Excel 2013 Data

Filtering worksheet data

When you want to look at a subset of your data or display only data values related to a specific category of information, you can apply filters to that data. You use the Filter tool on the Data tab to instruct Excel 2013 as to how you want to filter the information on the worksheet. When you filter your data, the data items that don’t meet the filter criteria are hidden temporarily so that you can view only the data you need.

You can also use slicers to filter your data in real time in a table format. Slicers are simple, graphical tables with which you can display your data in different ways without changing selections on the worksheet. Slicers are easy to add and can be an effective tool for showing how your data looks when filtered in different ways.

Filter selected data

1. Click any cell in the range that you want to filter.

2. Click the Data tab.

3. Click Filter.

4. Click the filter arrow for the column that contains the data you want to filter.

5. Select the check boxes adjacent to the values by which you want to filter the list.

6. Click OK.

   

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Use a slicer to filter a table

1. Click any cell in the Excel table that you want to filter.

2. Click the Insert tab.

3. Click Slicer.

   The Insert Slicers dialog box opens.

4. Select the check boxes adjacent to the fields for which you want to create a slicer.

5. Click OK.

6. Do any of the following steps:

   • Click an item to display just that item’s values in the table.

   • Ctrl+click a second item to add it to the list of displayed values.

   • Click an item and then Shift+click another item to display every item between those two items.

   • Click the Clear Filter button to remove all filters applied by the slicer.

   • Right-click and hold the slicer and click the Remove menu item to delete the slicer.