Switch Scenarios Dynamically using Slicers

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Slicers are my new favorite feature in Excel. Introduced in Excel 2010, Slicers are like visual filters.

A simple example of slicers:

Let us say you have a sales report (pivot) for multiple salespersons. Since you want to show the report by one person at a time, you used report filters in pivot tables to display this. But you find that switching between regions is a pain using the report filter.

Enter slicers.

Now, you can just click the region name to show the report for that region, like this:

Using Slicers to dynamically show sales report by person

Using Slicers to Switch between Scenarios Dynamically:

Now, we can use slicers creatively to make an interactive scenario manager in Excel, some thing like this:

Using Slicers to Switch Scenarios in Excel

This technique gives the same outcome as the Display and Select Scenarios using VBA article, but easier to implement

How to use slicers to switch between scenarios?

Step 1: Set up various scenarios in a table

You need to define various scenarios in a table, like this:

Scenario-wise data - setup

Step 2: Create a pivot table from your scenario data

Select the table you created in step 1 and insert a pivot table. Use variable name as row label and variable value in value field area.

Step 3: Insert a slicer for the scenarios

Select anywhere inside the pivot. Now, from options tab, click on Insert Slicer button. Click on Scenarios field to insert a slicer.

Add a slicer to select scenario

Step 4: Create your model, in our case a break-even model

I will skip the explanation of model creation as that is not relevant here.

Once the model is set up, just refer to the pivot table for each of the variable values.

Step 5: Move slicer to Model

Go to the pivot table worksheet and Select the slicer, click CTRL+X to cut it.

Go back to your model worksheet and paste the slicer.
Disabling Slicer Heading and Clear Filter Button

Step 6: Format the slicer

Excel slicers by default show an option to remove the filtered slicer. You can get rid of this button by,

1) Right click on the slicer
2) Go to slicer settings
3) Un-check Display Header option

See aside.

Step 7: Use the slicer to interactively switch scenarios

That is all, our smart scenario switching slicer is ready. Now, you can extend this in many ways. For example, you can write some clever formulas to handle selection of multiple slicers. You can compare between one scenario and another when more than one option is chosen from the slicer. So much more is possible. But I will let your imagination run wild.

Download Example Excel File:

I have made a simple example to demonstrate this technique.

Please download the file and open it in Excel 2010.

Examine the worksheets “Scenario Pivot” and “Model” to understand how the slicer is setup and how this works.

Do you slice?

As I said, Slicers are my new favorite feature in Excel. I have been using them as much as possible because they are simple to use and very powerful.

What about you? Do you slice often? What is your experience like? Please share your ideas and tips using comments.

More examples on Slicers & Pivot Tables:

1) Creating a Dynamic Dashboard in Excel using Slicers
2) Creating a Dynamic Chart using Pivot Table Report Filters
3) Remove Duplicates and Sort a list using Pivot Tables
4) More on Pivot Tables & Modeling

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21 Responses to “How to Filter Odd or Even Rows only? [Quick Tips]”

  1. Vijay says:

    Infact, instead of using =ISEVEN(B3), how about to use =ISEVEN(ROW())

    So it takes away any chance of wrong referencing.

  2. Hui... says:

    I like Daily Dose of Excel

  3. vimal says:

    I like it.

  4. Luke M says:

    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

  5. Debbi says:

    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.

  6. Paul S says:

    Just for clarification, is Ashish looking to filter by even or odd Characters or rows?

  7. Fred says:

    so many functions to learn!

  8. Istiyak says:

    Nice support by chandoo and team as a helpdesk. Give us more to learn and make us awesome. Always be helpful.......

  9. Arps says:

    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,,)

  10. Pippa says:

    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.

  11. Matthew D. Healy says:

    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.

  12. Paulo says:

    Another way =MOD(ROW();2). In this case, must to choose betwen 1 and 0.

  13. Makhan Butt says:

    very different style Odd or Even Rows very easy way to visit this site

    http://www.handycss.com/tips/odd-or-even-rows/

  14. Terhile says:

    Thanks for the tip, it worked like magic, saved having to delete row by row in my database.

  15. majid says:

    Thankssssssssssssssss

  16. Bhanu says:

    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

  17. Adriana says:

    Hi! Could you please help me find a formula to filter by language?
    Thank you!

  18. avinash says:

    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

  19. Arshad Hussain Shah says:

    =IF(EVEN(A1)=A1,"EVEN - do something","ODD - do something else") with iferron (for blank Cell)

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