Filtering Data by Selection

After you open the form that you want to use to filter data, click in an instance of the entry you want to use as the filter (here, a Painting entry in the Class field).

Click the Filter By Selection button on the Standard toolbar in the main Access window.

INTRODUCTION There may be times when you want to focus on a particular set of records. For example, you might want to display all records in a certain state, all records of a certain product type, or, as outlined here, all records of people who are taking a particular class. The easiest way to display a set of records is to use Access's Filter by Selection feature. You'll view the results as a whole in a datasheet form, but you can also filter data using single-form views. Only those that match the filter will be available for scrolling.

Access displays only those records that contain that entry in the selected field (in this example, those records that contain a Painting entry in the Class field).

To again view all records in the table, click the Remove Filter button on the Standard toolbar in the main Access window.

All records are displayed again.

TIP Using the Menus If you prefer, you can open the Record menu, choose Filter, and choose Filter By Selection instead of clicking the Filter By Selection button in step 2.

TIP Filtering by Exclusion In some cases, you may want to display all records that don't contain a specific entry. In that case, you can filter excluding the selection by opening the Records menu, choosing Filter, and selecting Filter Excluding Selection.

TIP Filtering Again You can further filter the subset of records by filtering on another field. For example, in a customer form, you might filter for all records in South Carolina and then filter the records to display those assigned to a particular sales representative.