Basic Filtering of Data in Excel

What does filtering actually do?

It is no coincidence that filter and sort are in the same menu in Microsoft Excel. But even though there are some similarities between them, there are some notable differences:
While sorting allows you to rearrange entries in a particular order, filtering enables you to hide all unnecessary data and display only the specific information you need.

Lets say you have a list of clients and you would like to display only the gold members of your program. You would simply filter by the gold category and all other members will be hidden. You could display multiple categories (for example gold and platinum) by selecting those in the drop down menu, as explained in the video on the right.

You would use sorting when you need all of your data arranged in a specific order. Filtering on the other hand is better suited for occasions where you only need some of your data visible, based on predefined categories.