Data Filtering

Autofilter Data

Autofiltering is the quickest way to select only those items from the worksheet that you want to display in a list. The autofilter feature allows users to filter items in a list according to a set of criteria. Filter based on text, numbers or dates.

Autofilter in Microsoft Excel

To activate the autofilter feature in Microsoft Excel:

  1. Click the heading row in a worksheet.
  2. From the Data menu, select Filter and then AutoFilter.

When you apply an autofilter to a worksheet, filter switches (black arrows) appear to the right of the column headings.

  1. Click a filter arrow to see a list of filter options.

Some of the autofilter options are:

Options Description
All Show all items in the list once.
Custom Customize filter criteria like contains/not contains
Filter by Color Filters based on filled color
Date Filters Filters rows based on different criteria for dates
Number Filters Different types of filter on numbers like comparison, averages and Top 10 etc.
Text Filters Different filters like begins with, ends with, contains etc.
Blanks/Non Blanks These filters can be implemented through Text Filter Blank

Users manually filter their worksheet data in Microsoft Excel using these options.

Autofilter with Aspose.Cells for Node.js via C++

Aspose.Cells provides a class Workbook that represents an Excel file. The Workbook class contains a Worksheets collection that allows access to each worksheet in the Excel file.

A worksheet is represented by the Worksheet class. The Worksheet class provides a wide range of properties and methods to manage worksheets. To create an autofilter, use the AutoFilter property of the Worksheet class. The AutoFilter property is an object of the AutoFilter class, which provides the Range property for specifying the range of cells that make up a heading row. An autofilter is applied to the range of cells that is the heading row.

In each worksheet, you can only specify one filter range. This is limited by Microsoft Excel. For custom data filtering, use the AutoFilter.Custom method.

In the example given below, we have created the same AutoFilter using Aspose.Cells for Node.js via C++ as we created using Microsoft Excel in the above section.

Different Types of Filter

Aspose.Cells provides multiple options to apply different types of filters like Color Filter, Date Filter, Number Filter, Text Filter, Blank Filters and Non‑Blank Filters.

Fill Color

Aspose.Cells provides a function AddFillColorFilter to filter data based upon the fill‑color property of the cells. In the example given below, a template file having different fill colors in the first column of the sheet is used to test the color‑filtering function. Sample files can be downloaded from the following links.

  1. ColouredCells.xlsx
  2. FilteredColouredCells.xlsx
Date

Different types of date filters can be implemented, such as filtering all the rows that have dates in January 2018. The following sample code demonstrates this filter using the AddDateFilter function. Sample files are given below.

  1. Date.xlsx
  2. FilteredDate.xlsx
Dynamic Date

Sometimes dynamic filters are required based on date, such as all cells with dates in January regardless of the year. In this case the DynamicFilter function is used as shown in the following sample code. Sample files are given below.

  1. Date.xlsx
  2. FilteredDynamicDate.xlsx
Number

Custom filters can be applied using Aspose.Cells, such as selecting cells that have numbers between a given range. The following example demonstrates the usage of the Custom() function to filter numbers. Sample files are given below.

  1. Number.xlsx
  2. FilteredNumber.xlsx
Text

If a column contains text and you want to select cells containing particular text, the Filter() function can be used. In the following example, the template file contains a list of countries and the rows to be selected contain a particular country name. The following code demonstrates filtering text. Sample files are given below.

  1. Text.xlsx
  2. FilteredText.xlsx
Blanks

If a column contains text such that a few cells are blank, and a filter is required to select only those rows where blank cells are present, the MatchBlanks() function can be used as demonstrated below. Sample files are given below.

  1. Blank.xlsx
  2. FilteredBlank.xlsx
Non Blanks

When cells that contain any text are to be filtered, use the MatchNonBlanks filter function as demonstrated below. Sample files are given below.

  1. Blank.xlsx
  2. FilteredNonBlank.xlsx
Custom filter with Contains

Excel provides custom filters that filter rows which contain a specific string. This feature is available in Aspose.Cells and is demonstrated below by filtering the names in the sample file. Sample files are given below.

  1. sourceSampleCountryNames.xlsx
  2. outSourceSampleCountryNames.xlsx.
Custom filter with NotContains

Excel provides custom filters that filter rows which do not contain a specific string. This feature is available in Aspose.Cells and is demonstrated below by filtering the names in the sample file given below.

  1. sourceSampleCountryNames.xlsx.
Custom filter with BeginsWith

Excel provides custom filters that filter rows which begin with a specific string. This feature is available in Aspose.Cells and is demonstrated below by filtering the names in the sample file given below.

  1. sourceSampleCountryNames.xlsx.
Custom filter with EndsWith

Excel provides custom filters that filter rows which end with a specific string. This feature is available in Aspose.Cells and is demonstrated below by filtering the names in the sample file given below.

  1. sourceSampleCountryNames.xlsx.

Advanced topics

  • Apply Advanced Filter of Microsoft Excel to Display Records Meeting Complex Criteria
  • Get All Hidden Rows Indices after Refreshing AutoFilter