Using multiple criteria to identify matching sites in database

[sil2011]

Hi,

I'm assisting a colleague organise data on website suppliers, where the data is broken down in to categories and sub-categories (doc attached):

Main categories:

- GENDER
- GENRE
- AGE
- SOCIAL GRADE

The number of sub-categories for each of these vary between 2 (gender) and 12 (genre), and in some cases sites will fit in to multiple categories, based on a broad target audience.

The aim is to create a form of picklist, to allow him to be able to select multiple criteria and then only see the sites which fit those criteria. I recognise that the format will need to be revised, particularly the Y's to signify it meets the criteria.

For example, he may want to see sites which target males, ages 16-35, and interested in Entertainment, Tech and TV.

I would consider using queries in Access for this, however, he is working on a Mac (Access is not available) and is comfortable using Excel.

Filters and a pivot table allow one to see only those sites that match the exact criteria (ie Male AND Age 16-24 AND Age 25-34 AND Entertainment AND Tech AND TV), but we require some way of selecting sites which meet the criteria (Male AND Age 16-24 OR Age 25-34 AND Entertainment OR Tech OR TV).

Is there any way of doing this in Excel, or would we need to use an external database to manage the data.

Thanks in advance.

[martindwilson]

you could us advanced filter read here
http://www.contextures.com/xladvfilter01.html