Creating a dynamic filter using dropdown menu in spreadsheet

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1

Hey everyone! I’m trying to set up a cool feature in my spreadsheet. I want to make a dropdown list right in the cell that can filter the data on my sheet. Here’s what I’m picturing:

Person | Details | Group ▼
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John   | Stuff   | X
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Sarah  | Things  | Y
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So when I click that little arrow, I’d get a list with X and Y. If I pick X, it would only show me John’s row. I want it to happen right there on the sheet, not on a separate tab or anything.

I tried messing around with some formulas, but I couldn’t figure out how to make it work in the same place. Any ideas on how to pull this off? It would make my life so much easier if I could get this working! Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!

2

hey there! i’ve tried something similar before. have u thought about using a pivot table? it’s not exactly in the same cell, but u can put a filter right at the top of ur data. just select ur whole range, hit ‘insert pivot table’ and drag ‘Group’ to the filter area. it’ll give u a dropdown to pick X or Y easily. hope this helps!

3

I’ve worked on a similar challenge before, and combining Data Validation with the FILTER function turned out to be an effective solution. You can set up a dropdown list using Data Validation for one cell and then use the FILTER function in another cell to display only the rows that match the chosen value. This approach may not place the filtered results in the exact cell with the dropdown, but it creates a dynamic filtering effect that updates automatically. Depending on your spreadsheet’s layout and program, some adjustments might be needed.

4

In my experience, addressing this challenge involved using the spreadsheet’s built-in filter options rather than implementing a direct dropdown filter within the cell. I found that converting the data range into a table and then applying a filter helped streamline the process. By clicking on the column header, the tool provided an option to select which group to display, effectively limiting the visible rows and simplifying data management. Although this method does not exactly place a dropdown inside the cell, it provides dynamic filtering that adapts well to changes in the data.