How to filter merged cells

Hello everyone!

I have a question regarding filtering merged cells. In fact I think there is no solution for my problem whatsoever due to the merged cells, but if this is the case, I just want this confirmation from the excel experts ;-)

Please have a look at the attached excel file. I want to filter data in column C (merged cells) and E (no merged cells), but without using the normal filter function.

If I would use the normal function and filter for 'Peter' in column C, it will obviously only display row 5 and 14. However, I want to type 'Peter' in cell C1 and as a result, everything within A5:E8 and A14:E17 should be displayed.

Same procedure for the column E. If I would filter for the letter 'F', it will only display row 10 and 19. However, I want to type 'F' in cell E1 and as a result, everything within A9:E12 and A18:E21 should be displayed.

Hope that anyone can help. If there is no solution, please let me know any ideas you have to maybe rearrange the data to make it work somehow. Any ideas actually would be helpful.

Thanks!

I could unmerge the cells, but then my file wouldn't make sense anymore. Also, in my example, the problem would remain the same for column E.

I don't get this. Can you please amend my file?

Ok I get this now. The bigger problem however is column E. I want to filter single cells but the outcome should be 4 rows in total. And this amount of rows varies in my actual file. Sometimes it's more, sometimes less. Do you have a solution for this as well?