Chapter 8: Focusing on Specific Data Using Filters

Overview

In this chapter you will learn to:

• Limit the data that appears on the screen.

• Perform calculations on filtered data.

• Define a valid set of values for a range of cells .

An important aspect of working with large amounts of data is the ability to zero in on the most important data in a worksheet, whether that data represents the best 10 days of sales in a month or slow-selling product lines that you might need to reevaluate. In Microsoft Office Excel 2003, you have a number of powerful, flexible tools with which you can limit the data displayed in your worksheet. Once your worksheet displays the subset of the data you need to make a decision, you can perform calculations on that data. You can discover what percentage of monthly sales were made up by the 10 best days in the month, find your total sales for particular days of the week, or locate the slowest business day of the month.

Just as you can limit the data displayed by your worksheets, you can limit the data entered into them as well. Setting rules for data entered into cells lets you catch many of the most common data entry errors, such as entering values that are too small or too large, or attempting to enter a word in a cell that requires a number. Should you add a validation rule to worksheet cells after data has been entered into them, you can circle any invalid data so that you know what to correct.

In this chapter, you ll learn how to limit the data that appears in your worksheets, perform calculations on the remaining data, and limit the data that can be entered into specific cells.

See Also  

Do you need only a quick refresher on the topics in this chapter? See the quickreference entries on page xxxiii.

Important  

 On the CD    Before you can use the practice files in this chapter, you need to install them from the book s companion CD to their default location. See Using the Book s CD-ROM on page xxi for more information.