Filtering / Deleting Rows with Defined Prefix ?!

**eLearner** · 07-31-2011, 02:14 AM

Dear All,

It's a pleasure to be here in such motivating forum with its enthusiastic members

This is my first post here, and I am a beginner in excel.

OK, I have a sheet with rows all are type of numbers. I want only to keep rows that start with 123XXXXXXXXXXXX (for example), other rows should be deleted or hided.

Is there anyway to do such filtering using the default commands of MS Excel? Or does it need customized script ?

Best Regards

**DonkeyOte** · 07-31-2011, 02:59 AM

It's not clear if the source values are numbers (123#####) or alphanumerics (123@@@@)

If they are numbers... are all numbers the same length ?
If they are numbers and they are of consistent length you can filter based on number >= min and < max

If they are strings you can use a "Begins with" filter of 123

Once you have the filter applied you can then delete / hide visible rows as appropriate ... of course if you want to hide you can reverse the logic of the filter such that the filter hides the offending values rather than displays them.

**eLearner** · 07-31-2011, 04:53 AM

Dear Brother thank you very much for your response.

Currently they are numbers only (but it is not my requirement; we can treat them as string and I can store them as text). However, they are not consistent in length; each number may have different length.

I have to search about the using the "Begins with" filter; I have never used such filter before !

Appreciating your kind support

Regards