Microsoft Office Professional 2010 Step by Step eBook

Filtering Information in Tables 851

Filtering Information in Tables.

Sorting the information in a table organizes it in a logical manner, but you still have the

entire table to deal with. For locating only the records containing (or not containing)

specific information, filtering is more effective than sorting. For example, you could

quickly create a filter to locate only customers who live in Seattle, only items that were

purchased on January 13, or only orders that were not shipped by standard mail. When

you filter a table, Access doesn’t remove the records that don’t match the filter; it simply

hides them.

The Filter commands are available in the Sort & Filter group on the Home tab, on the menu

displayed when you click the arrow at the right end of a field name, and on the shortcut

menu displayed when you right-click anywhere in a field’s column. However, not all Filter

commands are available in all of these places.

To filter information by multiple criteria, you can apply additional filters to the results of

the first one.

Tip You can filter records while displaying them in a form by using the same commands as

you do to filter records in a table.

In this exercise, you’ll filter records by using a single criterion and then by using multiple

criteria.

SET UP You need the GardenCompany04 database you worked with in the preceding

exercise to complete this exercise. Open the GardenCompany04 database, and then

follow the steps.

1. In the Navigation pane, under Tables, double-click Customers to open the
   Customers table in Datasheet view.


2. In the City field, click any instance of Vancouver.


3. On the Home tab, in the Sort & Filter group, click the Selection button, and then
   in the list, click Equals “Vancouver”.
   Access displays a small filter icon shaped like a funnel at the right end of the City
   field name to indicate that the table is filtered by that field. The status bar at the
   bottom of the table has changed from 1 of 110 to 1 of 6 because only six records
   have the value Vancouver in the City field. Also on the status bar, the Filter status
   has changed to Filtered.