Understanding the Role of Sorting and Filtering

Microsoft Access provides a variety of sorting and filtering features that make customizing the display data in Table Datasheet view a quick and simple process. Sorting and filtering records in tables is useful when you use data to create a mailing list or print a particular set of records.

Access also includes versatile search and replace facilities that let you locate every record that matches a value you specify and then, optionally, change that value. Using the Search features, you can quickly locate values even in large tables. Search and replace often is needed when you import data from another database or a worksheet, which is the primary subject of the next chapter.

Access's sorting, filtering, searching, and replacing features actually are implemented behind-the-scenes by queries that Access creates for you. When you reach Part III, "Transforming Data with Queries and PivotTables," you'll probably choose to implement these features in Access's graphical Query Design window. Learning the fundamentals of these operations with tables, however, makes queries easier to understand. You also can apply filters to query result sets, use the find feature with queries in Datasheet view, and use search and replace on the result sets of updatable queries.

Note

The last significant change to Access's sort, filter, find, and replace features occurred in Access 2000 with the addition of Filter by Form. In Access 2003, these features behave identically when applied to Jet tables in conventional applications and SQL Server tables in Access data projects (ADP).