Get a handle on your data
Grouping rows and columns inExcellets you collapse and expand sections of a worksheet.
This can make large and complex datasets much easier to understand.
Views become compact and organized.
This article shows you step-by-step how to group and view your data.
Groups can also be nested inside other groups to create a multi-level hierarchy.
Groups provide a really useful way to navigate and view large and complex spreadsheets.
They make it much easier to focus on the data that’s important.
Select theminus (-)to collapse the group.
The rows have been grouped and can now be collapsed and expanded as required.
This makes it much easier to focus on just the relevant data.
A thin line will appear above the column letters.
This line indicates the extent of the grouped columns.
Select theminus (-)to collapse the group.
The rows have been grouped and can now be collapsed and expanded as required.
Excel creates groups where formulas reference a continuous range of cells.
If your worksheet doesnt contain any formulas, Excel wont be able to automatically create groups.
Select theDatatab >Group>Auto Outlineand Excel will create the groups for you.
In this example, Excel correctly identified each of the groups of rows.
Because there’s no annual total for each spending category, it has not automatically grouped the columns.
It would make sense to also group all of the data for each year.
Select all of the rows to be included.
The spreadsheet now contains two levels of groups, with individual rows within the groups.
Select theDatatab >Group>Auto Outlineto automatically create these multi-level groups.
Select thenumber two boxto expand the first level of groups and make the second level of groups visible.
The individual rows within the second level groups remain hidden.
It’s also possible to expand and collapse individual groups.
In this way, groups at different levels in the hierarchy can be viewed as required.
