Auto-Filter Problems...

At my business we use a certain format for our sales orders. In 2004 we had a format of the job number and the year, such as 4304 or 1704. For some reason, our autofilter cannot seem to sift through this. For instance, after applying our autofilter to the sales order column on our spreadsheets, even using the search 'contains' or 'ends with' 04 won't bring up all the items that contains or ends with 04.

Can anyone explain/help correct this problem?

YOu can't use an AutoFilter to find a number within a number.

You can use an Advanced Filter, as described here:

http://www.contextures.com/xladvfilter02.html#Number

Or, add a column to the table, and use the FIND function to test for a
number. For example, with '04 in cell F1:

=ISNUMBER(FIND($F$1,E2))

Then, filter that column for TRUE.

Kompressor wrote:
> At my business we use a certain format for our sales orders. In 2004 we
> had a format of the job number and the year, such as 4304 or 1704. For
> some reason, our autofilter cannot seem to sift through this. For
> instance, after applying our autofilter to the sales order column on
> our spreadsheets, even using the search 'contains' or 'ends with' 04
> won't bring up all the items that contains or ends with 04.
>
> Can anyone explain/help correct this problem?
>
>


--
Debra Dalgleish
Excel FAQ, Tips & Book List
http://www.contextures.com/tiptech.html

Debra has probably nailed it, but one other possibility is if you have more
than 1000 unique entries in your data prior to your entries you are
expecting, as Excel will only return the first 1000 in Autofilter, eg (from
Debra's site):-

http://www.contextures.com/xlautofilter02.html#Limits

--
Regards
Ken....................... Microsoft MVP - Excel
Sys Spec - Win XP Pro / XL 97/00/02/03

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"Debra Dalgleish" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> YOu can't use an AutoFilter to find a number within a number.
>
> You can use an Advanced Filter, as described here:
>
> http://www.contextures.com/xladvfilter02.html#Number
>
> Or, add a column to the table, and use the FIND function to test for a
> number. For example, with '04 in cell F1:
>
> =ISNUMBER(FIND($F$1,E2))
>
> Then, filter that column for TRUE.
>
> Kompressor wrote:
> > At my business we use a certain format for our sales orders. In 2004 we
> > had a format of the job number and the year, such as 4304 or 1704. For
> > some reason, our autofilter cannot seem to sift through this. For
> > instance, after applying our autofilter to the sales order column on
> > our spreadsheets, even using the search 'contains' or 'ends with' 04
> > won't bring up all the items that contains or ends with 04.
> >
> > Can anyone explain/help correct this problem?
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Debra Dalgleish
> Excel FAQ, Tips & Book List
> http://www.contextures.com/tiptech.html
>