Filtering and sorting
Narrow a file down to the rows you need, and put them in order.
Filtering and sorting help you find exactly what you need in large datasets. They run over your entire file. This means they work the exact same way on 12 rows or 12 million rows.
Adding a filter
Filters hide rows that do not match your criteria. This lets you focus on specific data without deleting anything. You can apply filters in three ways.
Toolbar filter Click Filter in the toolbar. Pick a column, a condition, and a value. Available conditions include contains, does not contain, equals, does not equal, greater than, less than, and is one of.
Header filter Right-click a column header and choose Filter by value. This opens a checkbox list of the distinct values in that column. Search the list if it is long. Check or uncheck values to filter your rows.
Cell filter Right-click a cell and choose Filter by “
Filter chips
Every active filter appears as a chip below the toolbar. This helps you keep track of what data is hidden. Click the X on a chip to remove that single filter. Click Clear all to remove every filter at once.
Stacking filters
You can add more than one filter at a time. All active filters must match a row for it to appear. This uses AND logic. It works just like AutoFilter across several columns in Excel. For example, you can filter for sales over $100 and a specific region at the same time.
Colouring instead of filtering
When you want the matching rows picked out rather than the others hidden, colour them.
Sorting
Sorting puts your rows in a specific order. This is useful for finding the largest or smallest values quickly. Click a column header to sort by that column in ascending order.
Click the header again for descending order. The header shows an arrow pointing the direction of the current sort. Click a third time to go back to the original row order. You can also right-click a column header and choose Remove the sort.
Finding text
You can search for specific text across your file. Press Cmd+F (Ctrl+F on Windows and Linux) to open the Find bar. Type a search term and BigXL finds matches across all columns or one column you choose, and the arrows step through them. Tick Aa to match case.
To look in every open file at once, press Shift+Cmd+F. See Searching every open file.
Press Cmd+R to open Find and Replace (part of Pro). It shows a live count of how many cells match, and you can tick Aa to match case or Whole cell to match only cells that are exactly your term. You see the count and a preview before you commit.