Filter Pivot Table in Microsoft Excel

In the world of modern technology, a pivot table filter is considered a powerful feature that allows us to easily refine and also to focus on our analysis of the specific amount of data within the selected pivot table. It is more like putting on a pair of glasses that lets us see only the information that we actually want to examine more closely in an effective manner. Let us imagine that we have a large dataset with tons of information, like sales figures for the various products in the various regions over the several months. Without a filter, it can be quite overwhelming to make sense of all that data. But with the pivot table filter, we can selectively display only the data that will meet certain criteria as well.

• For example, we can easily filter out the pivot table to depict the sales data for a particular product category, such as electronics, or a specific period, like the last quarter. This will allow us to effectively zoom in on the specific subset of the data that we are interested in analyzing, thus making it easier to spot trends, patterns, and outliers.

More often, the respective filters in the pivot tables are highly customizable, thus giving us the flexibility for the purpose of slicing and dicing our data in numerous ways. We can also filter out the table by the multiple criteria simultaneously, such as by product category and with the region, in order to perform a more nuanced analysis. Overall, pivot table filters are an essential tool that can be used for gaining insights from our data quickly and efficiently. Whether we are a business analyst, a financial planner, or just someone trying to make sense of a complex dataset, pivot table filters empower us to focus on the information that matters most to our analysis effectively.

What is a Pivot Table in Microsoft Excel?

"In Microsoft Excel, a pivot table is a powerful data summarization tool that can be efficiently used for the process of analyzing huge datasets quickly. Despite this, it will also enable the users to easily extract valuable insights from the available raw data by just organizing and summarizing it into a more manageable format." With the help of the pivot tables, the respective users can easily explore the trends, patterns, and also the relationships that must lie within their data without the need for complex formulas.

Moreover, at its core, the pivot table in Excel allows every user to rearrange effectively and manipulate the data dynamically. Users can easily define rows, columns, and values to structure their analysis according to their needs and criteria.

And despite all this, one of the key advantages that have been associated with the pivot tables is none other than their flexibility. With this advantage, the respective users can easily modify the layout and the structure of the pivot table in order to meet their analysis needs, as they can easily drag and drop out the fields from the dataset into the different areas of the pivot table, which are none other than rows, columns, values, and filters, for the purpose of creating custom reports and the summaries.

What is meant by Filter Pivot Table in Microsoft Excel?

It was well known that the respective "Filtering" in a pivot table within Microsoft Excel is a useful functionality that can be easily designed for the purpose of streamlining the data analysis by just selectively displaying out the subsets of the information which are based upon the specified criteria, as this feature usually empowers users to hone in on the relevant data points within their dataset, and thus facilitating a more focused as well as the efficient analytical process.

By just applying the filters, the respective users can now refine their pivot table in order to effectively display only the information that meets certain conditions, like as specific values within fields or the designated ranges. This flexibility allows for the quick exploration of the different subsets of the data without the need to manually manipulate the underlying dataset respectively.

However, the respective Microsoft Excel usually offers a variety of filtering options within the pivot tables, which mainly include the basic filters for the purpose of selecting the individual items from the given list and more advanced filters for specifying the criteria that are based upon the numerical ranges, text values, or the custom conditions. With this, users can now apply multiple filters simultaneously to refine their analysis further and also create complex queries to extract precisely the information they need easily. More often, filtering in the pivot tables is quite dynamic, meaning that as the users modify the filter settings, the respective pivot table will get automatically updated in order to reflect the new filtered data.

List out the key takeaways regarding the use of Filter Pivot Table in Microsoft Excel?

The various Key takeaways regarding the use of the Filter Pivot Table in Microsoft Excel are as follows:

1. Pivot Table Filter:
   
   • It helps an individual to extract specific data from a huge amount of datasets easily.
   • It can be easily applied and removed, thus allowing users to switch between the various filtered and full dataset views at any time.
2. Non-Additive Filtering:
   
   • It primarily helps in applying multiple filters to replace the previous ones.
   • Each new filter criteria discards the previous filter settings.
3. CSV Method with TEXTJOIN and CONCATENATE:
   
   • The TEXTJOIN function was usually introduced in Microsoft Excel 2016 to simplify text joining in Pivot Table filtering.
   • If the respective "TEXTJOIN" is unavailable, the "CONCATENATE" function can be easily used as an alternative.
   • Both functions aid in combining the text strings efficiently for filtering purposes as well.

How to easily filter out the Pivot table in Microsoft Excel?

We can easily Filter the Pivot Table by just making use of the two methods:

• Right-click on the Pivot Table, and then need to click on the "Filter" option.
• By making use of the filter options which are effectively provided in the Pivot Table fields respectively.

So let us now look at multiple ways of just making use of a filter in an Excel Pivot table:

#Example 1: Creation of the Inbuilt Filter in the PIVOT Table

Step 1: First, we need to collect the data in a single worksheet, which usually consists of four columns: Sl.No, Flat No's, Carpet Area, and SBA, respectively.

Step 2: In this step, once the data has been collected and assembled in the single worksheet, we are required to go to the Insert tab and select the Pivot table, as clearly depicted below.

The "Create Pivot Table" window pops out when we will be clicking on the respective pivot table.

Now, by performing the above step, we will be faced with a huge range of options that can be used to select a table or a range to create a pivot table. Despite this, we can also use an external data source. We can also place the Pivot table report in the same or a new worksheet, and we can see it effectively, as shown in the above image.

Step 3: And now the respective Pivot table Field will be available on the right end of the sheet as mentioned below. We can also observe the Filter field, where we can easily drag out the fields into the filters for the purpose of creating a filter in the Pivot table in an effective manner.

Now let us drag the Flat no's field into the "Filters" column, and we can see the filter for Flat no's would have been created.

We can now easily filter out the Flat no's as per our requirement, which is the normal way of creating a filter in the Pivot table in Microsoft Excel sheet respectively.

#Example 2: Creation of the Filter to the Value Areas in an Excel sheet

In general, when we are taking data into the value areas, then in that particular scenario any filter won't be created for those fields as well. As it was clearly depicted in the below-mentioned screenshot respectively:

We can easily observe that the filter option for the value areas, which is none other than the Sum of SBA and for the Carpet Area, is absent. But we can create it, which helps us for various decision-making purposes as well.

Step 1: First, we must select any of the cells available next to the table.

Step 2: Just after selecting a cell from the respective table, we are required to click on the "filter" option, which is mainly available in the "data tab." Then, the filter effectively gets into the value areas.

Step 3: As we get the filters, now, with the help of that filter, we can easily perform different operations from the value areas, like sorting them from the largest to the smallest one, and know top sales/area/anything, respectively. Similarly, we can also sort from the smallest to the largest one, sorting by color and even performing out the number filters like <=,<,>=,>, and many more. More often, this will play an important role in the decision-making in any organization in an effective manner.

#Example 3: Displaying a list of the multiple Items in a Pivot Table Filter in an Excel sheet

As in the above example, we have learned to create a filter in the Pivot table. Now, let us look at how we can easily display the list differently. The 3 most important ways of just displaying a list of the multiple items in a selected pivot table filter are as follows:-

• By making use of the Slicers.
• By just creating a list of the cells with the filter criteria.
• By making use of the list of the comma-separated values.

1. By making use of the Slicers

Let us now have a simple pivot table with columns such as Region, Month, Unit No, Function, Industry, and Age Category.

From this example, we will consider the Function in our filter and then check how it can be listed using the slicers and varies according to our selection.

It is quite simple: We need to select any of the cells present inside the pivot table. We will then need to go to the "Analyze tab" available on the ribbon and choose Insert Slicer. After that, we are going to insert the slicer in our filter area, so in this case, the "Function" field in our filter area. We will hit OK, and that will effectively go to our selected Excel sheet.

And now we can see the items highlighted in the slicer are usually highlighted in our filter criteria in the filter dropdown menu as well. Now, this is a simple solution that does not display the filter criteria. And with this we can easily filter out the multiple items and can see the result varying in the value areas.

More often from the below example, it is clear that we had selected the functions that are quite visible in the slicer and can easily find out the count of the age category for the various industries (which are row labels that we had dragged into the row label field), which are associated with those function that is in the slicer as well. We can also change the function according to our requirement and can observe the results vary as per the items selected respectively.

However, if we have a lot of the items in our list here and it is long, then those items need to be displayed properly. We might have to do a lot of scrolling in order to see which items are selected so that it leads us to the nest solution of listing out the filter criteria in the cells respectively.

So, "Create List of the cells with the Filter Criteria" comes to our rescue respectively.

2. Create a List of the Cells with the Filter Criteria:

Now, here, we are going to make use of the connected pivot table, and we are going to make use of the above slicer to connect two respective pivot tables. So let us now create a duplicate copy of the existing pivot table and then paste it into a blank cell of a new sheet.

So now we have a duplicate copy of our pivot table, and we will be then modifying it slightly for the purpose of depicting the respective Functions field in the rows area. In order to achieve this, we need to select any cells that are available inside of our pivot table here and go over to the pivot table field list and go.

More often to remove Industry from the selected rows, we need to remove Count of Age Category from the values area as well. Despite this, we are going to take the Function in our filters as the rows area, and now we can see that we have a list of our filter criteria. If in case we look over here in our filter dropdown menu, we have the list of the items in slicers and function filter.

Now, we have a list of our filter criteria that actually work in accordance with our requirements because the slicer connects both pivots. Suppose we right-click anywhere on the slicer and report connections-pivot table connections. In that case, a menu will open, depicting that both the selected pivot tables are connected as checkboxes are checked.

This means whenever one change is made in the first pivot, it will automatically be reflected in the other. Tables can also be efficiently moved anywhere, as they can be used in any financial model, and row labels can also be changed.

3. List of the Comma Separated Values (CSV):

So, the third way to efficiently display our filter criteria is in a single cell with a list of comma-separated values, and we can do that with the help of the TEXTJOIN function. We still need the tables we also used earlier, and we can use the formula to create this string of values and effectively separate them with commas.

This is a new formula or function that has been introduced in Microsoft Excel 2016, and it is called TEXTJOIN (If we do not have Microsoft Excel 2016, then we cannot make use concatenate function as well). Text joining makes this process much easier as well. TEXTJOIN gives us three different arguments, which are as follows:

1. Delimiter: This usually represents either a comma or space in the selected Excel sheet.
2. Ignore Empty: It is responsible for returning true or false as the output value to ignore all empty cells.
3. Text: This particular argument specifies a range of cells that might contain the values we actually want to concatenate.

Let us now type text join- (delimiter- which would be "," in this case, TRUE (as we should ignore out the available empty cells), A: A (as the list of the selected items from the filter which will be available in this column as well) and in order to join any value and also ignore any empty value in Pivot Table Filter).

By performing the above step, we will be encountered with a list of all our filter criteria joined by a string. So, it's a comma-separated list of values, and if we didn't want to show these filter criteria in the formula, then we can also hide the cell as well.

We need to select the cell and then go to the analyze options tab, click on field headers, and the cell will be hidden.

So now we have the list of the values in their filter criteria. Now, if we want to change the pivot filter, it will then reflect in all the methods. We can use any one of them. But eventually, for a comma-separated solution slicer the list is required. They can be hidden if we want to display the tables separately.

Advantages of using Filter Pivot Table in Excel

It was well known that, filtering of the pivot tables in Microsoft Excel primarily revolutionizes the way the respective users interact with their data, and thus offering a host of the advantages that usually streamline the analysis process. At its core, filtering empowers users to easily tailor out their exploration of the data dynamically, ensuring they extract out the meaningful insights efficiently.

1. Effective Data Exploration: Filtered pivot tables in the Microsoft Excel basically serve as the dynamic lenses, which in turn allow the respective users to easily navigate through their selected datasets and with the unparalleled ease. By just toggling out the filters on the rows, columns, or on the values, particular users can swiftly switch between the different perspectives, and thus unveiling the hidden patterns as well as the trends.
2. It focuses on the Relevant Information: One of the primary benefits of filtering pivot tables in Microsoft Excel is none other than its ability to declutter the data, enabling users to easily focus on the information that matters most. And by just selectively hiding the irrelevant data, the respective users can zero in on the specific segments, conducting in-depth analyses without being sidetracked by the extraneous details. This focused approach not only enhances productivity but it will also ensure that conclusions drawn are based upon the most pertinent information that is made available to the user respectively.
3. Comparative Analysis: Filtering of the pivot tables in Microsoft Excel primarily facilitates comparative analysis by just enabling out the users to easily dissect their data into the different subsets easily. More often, by just applying the filters judiciously, the respective users can now isolate specific categories or the groups, thus allowing for side-by-side comparisons of the metrics, trends, and also with the performance indicators.
4. Efficient visualization of the data: The filtered pivot tables can be seamlessly integrated with the different charts and also with the various graphs, besides this they are responsible for the purpose of enhancing out the visualization of the data and also facilitating out the communication of the insights. More often, this visualization aids in presenting the findings to the stakeholders and fostering for the better understanding as well as facilitating the data-driven decision-making in an effective manner.
5. Efficiency: Filtering of the pivot tables in Microsoft Excel significantly improves out the efficiency of the data analysis. And by just automating out the data refinement process, the respective filtering usually eliminates out the need for the manual rearrangement as well as the manipulation, thus saving users valuable time as well as the effort.

So it was well said that, the filtering of the pivot tables in Microsoft Excel usually empowers the users to easily explore, analyze, and also to derive out the valuable insights from their data with the unparalleled efficiency and also with the precision. And by providing out the flexibility, focus, as well as the customization options, filtering pivot tables usually enhances the respective users' data analysis capabilities, driving informed decision-making and thus facilitating out the organizational success as well.

Points to Remember

The various important things which need to be remembered by an individual while working with the filtration of the pivot table in Microsoft Excel are as follows:

1. Non-Additive Nature of Filtering Pivot Table in Excel:
   It should be remembered that, we must need to select one of the criterion that does not stack onto another; instead of this, it will replace the previous selection as well, and for instance, if we want to first filter it by color and then by size, then the color filter will be discarded while the size filter will be applied effectively.
2. Special Feature: Search Box:
   We all knew that within the filtering tool, there is a handy feature that is known as the "Search Box." And this particular feature primarily allows users to manually select the results that they do not want to include.
3. By making use of the Label Filters for the Exclusion:
   While the main filtering mechanism does not directly support the exclusion of the certain results that are based upon the conditions, there is a workaround using label filters as well. And the Label filters mainly provide a way to include or exclude items that are based upon some specific criteria.

For example, we might want to select products based on currency, such as rupees or dollars. In that case, we can also utilize the "does not contain" label filter option to exclude items that do not meet the currency's condition.

However, the filtering system operates in a non-additive manner, in which each new filter usually replaces the previous one rather than stacking onto it. Despite of this, the respective users can now easily leverage out the search box in order to manually deselect the unwanted results efficiently, especially in the large datasets with the diverse content. In addition to this, the label filter functionality offers a workaround for excluding specific items based on the custom criteria. It thus provides users with the flexibility to refine their selections.

Frequently Asked questions/ FAQ's

It was well known that, the filtering of the pivot tables in Microsoft Excel is termed to be the crucial skill for anyone who is actually dealing with the large amount of the datasets or with the complex analyses. Whether we are a seasoned Microsoft Excel user or just starting, understanding how one can easily filter out the pivot tables efficiently can save our time as well as the effort. So here in this section, we will be now exploring some of the frequently asked questions about the filtering of the pivot tables in Microsoft Excel.

Question 1. How to easily filter a pivot table by the specific value in Microsoft Excel?

Answer: To efficiently filter a pivot table by the help of the specific value, first of all we are required to click on the filter dropdown menu for the field that we actually want to filter. After that, we need to select the desired value from the given list, and this action will now filter out the pivot table so that it will be displaying only the data which are associated with that value respectively.

Question 2. Is it possible to filter out the multiple items at once in a pivot table?

Answer: Yes, we can easily filter out the multiple items simultaneously in a selected pivot table. And in order to achieve this, we are required to open the filter dropdown menu for the desired field and then need to check the boxes next to each item that we actually want to include as well. Microsoft Excel will then display only the data corresponding to the selected items.

Question 3. What if we want to exclude certain values from the pivot table in Microsoft Excel?

Answer: If in case we wish to exclude the specific values from the pivot table in Microsoft Excel, then in that case we can uncheck all the boxes that are available next to those values in the filter dropdown menu. Microsoft Excel will then update the pivot table in order to exclude all the unchecked values from the displayed data as well.

Question 4. Can a pivot table be filtered based on a range of values in Microsoft Excel?

Answer: Yes, of course, the respective Microsoft Excel allows us to easily filter out the pivot tables based upon a range of values by using the "Number Filters" option. , we can now open the filter dropdown menu for the desired field as well, select "Number Filters," and then choose the appropriate filter criteria, like greater than, less than, or between certain numbers, respectively.

Question 5. Can we easily sort out the filtered data in a pivot table?

Answer: Yes, absolutely! Just after filtering out the data in a selected pivot table, we can easily click on the column headers in order to sort the filtered data effectively in ascending or in the descending order. And this feature will allows us to further customize out the presentation of our data for the effective analysis.

Question 6. How we can clear all filters in a pivot table at once?

Answer: Now, in order to remove all the filters which are applied to a pivot table simultaneously, we must need to open the filter dropdown menu for each field and then need to select the "Clear Filter" option, as this action will reset the pivot table for the purpose of displaying all the data without any applied filters respectively.

Question 7. What if in case we want to filter by the multiple criteria across the different fields?

Answer: If we are required to apply multiple criteria across the different fields in a selected pivot table, then in that case we can easily make use of the "Report Filter" or "Slicer" options. As these features usually allow us to add additional filters to our respective selected pivot table and then we need to apply all the complex filtering criteria across multiple fields simultaneously.

Question 8. Can we save a filtered view of a pivot table for the future reference?

Answer: Yes, we can easily save a filtered view of a pivot table for the future reference by just copying as well as pasting out the filtered data into a new worksheet or by saving the workbook with the filtered pivot table, as this will enable us to revisit and also to analyze out the filtered data at any time without having to reapply the filters.

Conclusion

We all knew that the respective filtering pivot tables in Microsoft Excel is basically termed to be the important function which enables out the respective users to easily extract out the meaningful insights from the given huge sets of the data in an effective manner. So by just applying out the filters to the respective selected pivot tables, the particular users can now customize out their analysis in order to focus on the specific subsets of the data, and thus allowing for a more targeted exploration of the trends and also the patterns as well. This capability mainly empowers the users to easily delve deeper into their data, and then uncovering all the valuable insights that the sheer out the volume of the information might otherwise obscure as well.