Actually, Advanced Filter can do what you want:
Here's an approach to try:
Assumptions:
Sheet1 contains your data in cells A5:L300
Sheet2 is where you want the extracted data to be displayed
Using Sheet2:
A1: StudentName
B1: Comment
Insert>Name>Define
Names in workbook: Sheet2!Extract
Refers to: =Sheet2!$A$1:$B$1
I1: Comment
I2: *
Insert>Name>Define
Names in workbook: Sheet2!Criteria
Refers to: =Sheet2!$I$1:$I$2
Still using Sheet2:
Insert>Name>Define
Names in workbook: Sheet2!Database
Refers to: =Sheet1!$A$5:$L$3000
(Notice: you are on Sheet2, and creating a Sheet2-level range name, but
the referenced range is on Sheet1)
The reason: An advanced filter cannot SEND data to another sheet, but
it can PULL data from another sheet.
Now...set up the Advanced Data Filter:
Data>Filter>Advanced Data Filter
Select: Copy to another location
List Range: (press F3 and select Database)
Criteria Range: (press F3 and select Criteria)
Copy To: (press F3 and select Extract)
Click [OK]
Note: if you want to run that Advanced Data Filter repeatedly,
you'll need to re-select Database each time
....OR...if you're feeling a bit ambitious...
You can build a simple macro to automatically re-run the filter:
Press [Alt]+[F11] to open the VBA editor
Right click on the VBA Project folder for your workbook
Select: Insert>Module
Then, copy/paste this code into that module:
'---Start of Code-------
Option Explicit
Sub PullMatchingData()
Range("Sheet2!Database").AdvancedFilter _
Action:=xlFilterCopy, _
CriteriaRange:=Range("Sheet2!Criteria"), _
CopyToRange:=Range("Sheet2!Extract"), _
Unique:=False
End Sub
'---Start of Code-------
To run the code:
Tools>Macro>Macros (or [Alt]+[F8])
Select and run: PullMatchingData
To test, change the value of I2 and run it again.
Does that help?
***********
Regards,
Ron
XL2002, WinXP-Pro
Molly said:
Dear experts,
I have a list of students with ten columns of data to the right and then an
eleventh column containing textual comments.
I want excel to automatically look at the range of student results
(A5:L300), determine which students have comments (not all students have
comments) and extract the student name and the comment and display this on
another sheet.
I can see how this can be done with an advanced filter however:
I want the results on another sheet and I don't want to have to do it
manually.
Is there any way I can achieve this?
kind regards
Molly
