In addition to the basic filter options, there are two filter tools to help a user customize the data selection.  One is evoked by selecting the (Custom…) option from Filter Select menu options. 

 

Figure 14: Customize grid data option

 

When this option is selected the Custom Filter dialog box will appear with the specified data value as the filter.

 

Figure 15: Custom Filter option

 

This dialog allows a user to select data on a set of preset condition based on the data type.  The filter conditions available depend on the data to be searched.  In most cases, a user will have the following conditions to use when creating a filter.

 

Conditions available in the Custom Filter:

Equals

Does not equal

Is less than

Is less than or equal to

Is greater than

Is greater than or equal to

Like

Not like

Is blank

Is not blank

 

Note that all the conditions listed above will work with either numbers or text.  Depending on the use some will work better than others.  In example, the Like condition is used to match on a pattern of what is being searched.   An appropriate use of the Like condition may be to use it to find all records containing “Jones” in the Last Name/Company Name field.  Conversely, attempting to find a pattern in a date field may not work as well using the Like.

 

The Custom Filter dialog allows a user to select a preset condition based on the data value chosen (“Order Number” in Figure 15). 

 

An optional second condition can be placed, as well.  If the second condition is left blank, the logic will ignore it.

 

Wildcards can be used to broaden searches and they apply to the conditions of “like” and “not like” and they can be used to represent a single character (underscore mark) or a series of characters (percentage mark).  For example, to search for all values containing the word “claim”, a statement of “%claim%” can be used (or “221” as is in the example in Figure 15 (above)).  This search is not case-sensitive and will find all uppercase and lowercase matches.