Time for a quick but very handy Excel FORMULA trick.
You have two tables. ORDERS & PRODUCTS. You want to see all the orders if the product name is mentioned in the other table. Thanks to the new FILTER() function in Excel, we can do this easily now.
The data setup
For the purpose of this example, assume you have a table named orders and another table named products.
The formula to filter one table by another list
Here is the formula to fetch all orders for the products listed in the other table.
=FILTER(orders, COUNTIFS(products, orders[Product]))How does this formula work?
This is a two-part puzzle.
PART 1 – COUNTIFS with Arrays:
Let’s look at the COUNTIFS portion first:
COUNTIFS(products, orders[Product])This formula returns an array of 1s & 0s
- It will be 1 whenever the orders[Product] matches one of the products table items.
- Else it will be 0
- The size of this array will be same as orders table. So if orders table has 100 rows, then you will get 100 ones or zeros here.
PART 2 – FILTER
The NEW FILTER() function in Excel can take a list or table and filter it based on a criteria.
So, for example, =FILTER(orders, orders[Product]=”Milk Bars”) would filter all rows where the product names is Milk Bars.
The trick is to use COUNTIFS output (which will be a bunch of 1s & 0s) as the criteria for FILTER. When Excel sees these 1s&0s, it’s going to include the rows with 1 & exclude the rows with 0.
Thus, producing the relevant orders for us.
Here is a quick demo of the formula in action:
Checking the reverse – Filter list when values are not in the other list
We can use the same approach to check for reverse too. This is helpful in finding which customers did not purchase in a month or which products did not sell in a given country etc. Here is an example formula for that:
=FILTER(orders, COUNTIFS(products, orders[Product])=0)Problems with this approach:
While this is a great technique, if you have large amounts of data then the formula could be slow. In such cases, I recommend using Power Query to handle the job. We can use inner join in Power Query merge operation to filter one table by merging it with another table.
For more on Power Query, please read this article.
Example workbook
If you need a sample file to practice this formula, click here and download it.
How do you deal with this problem?
I have been using the FILTER(… COUNTIFS()) approach for quick scenarios and Power Query Merge option for more complicated situations. What about you? How are you solving this problem? Please share your thoughts or questions in the comments section.
21 Responses to “How to Filter Odd or Even Rows only? [Quick Tips]”
Infact, instead of using =ISEVEN(B3), how about to use =ISEVEN(ROW())
So it takes away any chance of wrong referencing.
I like Daily Dose of Excel
I like it.
Just a heads up, you do need to have the Analysis ToolPak add-in activated to use the ISEVEN / ISODD functions. An alternative to ISEVEN would be:
=MOD(ROW(),2)=0
rather than use a formula, couldn't you enter "true" in first cell and "false" in the second and drag it down and than filter on true or false.
Just for clarification, is Ashish looking to filter by even or odd Characters or rows?
so many functions to learn!
Nice support by chandoo and team as a helpdesk. Give us more to learn and make us awesome. Always be helpful.......
In case you want to delete instead of filter,
IF your data is in Sheet1 column A
Put this in Sheet2 column A and drag down
=OFFSET(Sheet1!A$1,(ROWS($1:1)-1)*2,,)
(This is to delete even rows)
To delete odd rows :
=OFFSET(Sheet1!A$2,(ROWS($1:1)-1)*2,,)
If your numbered cells did not correspond to rows, the answer would be even simpler:
=MOD([cell address],2), then filter by 0 to see evens or 1 to see odds.
I sometimes do this using an even simpler method. I add a new column called "Sign" and put the value of 1 in the first row, say cell C2 if C1 contains the header. Then in C3 I put the formula =-1 * C2, which I copy and paste into the rest of the rows (so C4 has =-1 * C3 and so forth). Now I can just apply a filter and pick either +1 or -1 to see half the rows.
Another way, which works if I want three possibilities: in C2 I put the value 1, in C3 I put the value 2, in C4 I put the value 3, then in C5 I put the formula =C2 then I copy C5 and paste into all the remaining rows (so C6 gets =C3, C7 gets =C4, etc.). Now I can apply a filter and pick the value 1, 2, or 3 to see a third of the rows.
Extending this approach to more than 3 cases is left as an exercise for the reader.
Another way =MOD(ROW();2). In this case, must to choose betwen 1 and 0.
[...] How to Filter Even or Odd rows only [...]
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http://www.handycss.com/tips/odd-or-even-rows/
Thanks for the tip, it worked like magic, saved having to delete row by row in my database.
Thanks!
Thankssssssssssssssss
Hi Chandoo- First of all thanks for the trick. It helped me a lot. Here I have one more challenge. Having filtered the data based on odd. I want to paste data in another sheet adjacent to it. How can I do that?
For Example-
A 1 odd
B 3 odd
C 4 even
D 6 even
I have fileted the above data for odd and want to copy the "This is odd number" text in adjacent/next sheet here. How can I do that. After doing this my data should look like this
A 1 odd This is odd number
B 3 odd This is odd number
C 4 even
D 6 even
Hi! Could you please help me find a formula to filter by language?
Thank you!
Chandoo SIR,
I HAVE A DATA IN EXCEL ROWS LIKE BELOW IS THERE ANY FORMULA OR A WAY WHERE I CAN INSTRUCT I CAN MAKE CHANGES , MEANS I WANT TO WRITE ONLY , THE FIG IS FRESH, BUT IN BELOW ROW IT WILL AUTOMATICALLY TAKE THE SOME WORDS FROM FIGS AND MAKE IN PLURAL FORM , WHILE USING '' ARE'' LIKE BELOW
The fig is fresh - row 1
Figs are fresh - row 2
The Pomegranate is red - row 3
Pomegranates are red - row 4
=IF(EVEN(A1)=A1,"EVEN - do something","ODD - do something else") with iferron (for blank Cell)