Help with the filter function.

**justifiedcandy** · 08-18-2010, 10:58 PM

Is there anyway to group similar objects under one name in the filter? Example: \1
Ideally, I would like to define that chicken, pork, and beef are all part of "meat" which would appear from the drop down menu in the filter.
Thanks!

**StanPO** · 08-18-2010, 11:10 PM

One possible solution would be to set up a lookup chart on another worksheet, like this:

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Then, make a new column on the original sheet that uses a VLOOKUP to reference this table. Finally, you can run your filter on this new column.

**justifiedcandy** · 08-19-2010, 12:52 AM

Thanks for the quick reply

What if the object is not the only data in the cell? For instance, if the cell said "chicken with pepper" I would still want that under meat. Is there a way to make every cell containing the word chicken to appear under meat? In other words, can I make a filter based on key words?
Thanks

**royUK** · 08-19-2010, 02:24 AM

You need a column with the groups in then enter the group beside each product. Filter that column

**justifiedcandy** · 08-19-2010, 01:52 PM

The problem is I have much more than just one item in a cell. For instance, I could have chicken, carrots, apples, and water all in the same cell. However, I don't want to create a "meat, vegetable, fruit, and drink" group. I would simply like to create a "contains" filter. If an object contains chicken, it should appear when I filter by meat, even if there are other objects in the cell.
Thanks

**NBVC** · 08-19-2010, 02:03 PM

Originally Posted by justifiedcandy

Thanks for the quick reply

What if the object is not the only data in the cell? For instance, if the cell said "chicken with pepper" I would still want that under meat. Is there a way to make every cell containing the word chicken to appear under meat? In other words, can I make a filter based on key words?
Thanks

If your lookup list is in say X1:Y100

then

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this searches each element in X1:X100 and tries to find it in your cell containing "Chicken and Pepper" and then returns the corresponding item in Y1:Y100 where the first match occurred... (note, if Pepper is in your lookup column too.. and it comes first, it will match that one up).