Creating and showing a list

[comotoman]

I have a phone list divided into many catagories: a=Div#, b=what the
do, c=Contact info. Im trying to create a lookup feature that allow
the user to look up a div#, and show all. Or lookup what they do an
show the contact information. for example. In div2, I have 13 asphal
subcontractors, in the cell "div#", I would like to type "2", the
below that in another cell, I would like to type "asphalt" and th
result would be ALL 13 asphalt subcontractors

 

[Ruthki]

auto filter does jobs like this well - but you would select from a dro
down menu rather than entering 2/asphalt in a cell.
Excel help will guide you through using the autofilter.

 

[comotoman]

I am currently using autofilter to do this, but I would like to keep th
results and do the another search to fill in for 16 divisions on on
sheet. example:

_Div_#____________Subcontractor_Work_______________Contact_info._
"2" "asphalt"

Results
A1 Paving
123-4567
Plus Paving
456-7891
Z paving
654-3210
etc.
_Div_#____________Subcontractor_Work_______________Contact_info._
3 concrete

Results
1 Concrete
987-6543
Mudd Works
568-9546
etc

 

[Dave Peterson]

Excel has a feature that does almost what you want.

Select your range
data|filter|autofilter

You'll see dropdown arrows for each column in that selected range.

You can use those dropdown arrows to choose from a list of your entries.

You can also choose Custom and use contains or begins with or ends with or....

Then you can show what you want.

And you can filter on each column to further shrink down the number of displayed
rows.

When you want to see all the data again, just
data|filter|show all.
(or choose (All) from each of your filtered columns.)

Debra Dalgleish has some nice instructions at:
http://contextures.com/xlautofilter01.html

 

[comotoman]

Thanks for all the help, but I think Im getting lost or not explaining
my needs right. I understand the filter features, but you can only
filter one time on a sheet. I need to be able to filter multiple times
in different lines on one sheet. How do I do this?

 

[comotoman]

YEA!!!!!! I figured it out, it takes a combination of data validatio
dependent list, and vlookup. Thanks to all who helped!!