Once you have filtered or sorted data in a range of cells or table column, you can either reapply a filter or sort to get up-to-date results, or clear a filter to redisplay all of the data.
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Learn more about reapplying a filter and sort
To determine if a filter is applied, note the icon in the column heading:
- A drop-down arrow
means that filtering is enabled but not applied. Tip When you hover over the heading of a column with filtering enabled but not applied, a screen tip displays "(Showing All)".
- A Filter button
means that a filter is applied. Tip When you hover over the heading of a filtered column, a screen tip displays the filter applied to that column, such as "Equals a red cell color" or "Larger than 150".
When you reapply a filter or sort, different results appear for the following reasons:
- Data has been added, modified, or deleted to the range of cells or table column.
- The filter is a dynamic date and time filter, such as Today, This Week, or Year to Date.
- Values returned by a formula have changed and the worksheet has been recalculated.
Note When you use the Find dialog box to search filtered data, only the data that is displayed is searched; data that is not displayed is not searched. To search all the data, clear all filters.
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Reapply a filter or sort
Note For a table, filter and sort criteria are saved with the workbook so that you can reapply both the filter and sort each time that you open the workbook. However, for a range of cells, only filter criteria are saved with a workbook, not sort criteria. If you want to save sort criteria so that you can periodically reapply a sort when you open a workbook, then it's a good idea to use a table. This is especially important for multicolumn sorts or for sorts that take a long time to create.
- To reapply a filter or sort, on the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Sort & Filter, and then click Reapply.
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Clear a filter for a column
- To clear a filter for one column in a multicolumn range of cells or table, click the Filter button
on the heading, and then click Clear Filter from <Column Name>.
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Clear all filters in a worksheet and redisplay all rows
- On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Sort & Filter, and then click Clear.

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