Filters are powerful tools to drill down and display only the data you wish to see in a table. Basic filters are easy to do. Using the same process of filter creation again and again you can create very complex and detailed filters as needed.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Create a Basic Filter
For this example, we've created a variable where we grouped random preference statements. American respondents were asked to choose between things like "Democrat" vs. "Republican". We then combined these individual variables to see what preferences stood out as devisive or as dominant choices.
Now imagine that we would like to narrow down the data to just responses from Home Owners...
To do this we need to apply a filter:
1. Select the table(s) you want to filter then click the Options button.
- If you don't select a table the filter you build will be set on all tables.
2. Click Filter and bases.
3. Click on Filter Builder.
The Filter Builder will walk you through eh process of creating a filter, just follow the steps indicated by the numbers on the tool.
4. Scroll down and click the question that you wish to filter the data by from the drop down list. For our example we will choose the Region question. You can also search for your questions if you have a long questionnaire.
5. Select the responses you want to use by clicking the checkbox next to the one(s) you want to include.
- As you make your selections the total number of responses and what percentage of the total they represent will be shown.
- If you wish to exclude the data from the chosen responses select the Negate filter checkbox. In our example this would exclude responses from the East region.
6. Click Add to Visual or Add to Advanced. Add to Visual will display the exact question and answer choice text you've selected. Add to Advanced will display the syntax for the question(s) and answer choice(s) selected.
Add to Visual:
Add to Advanced:
You can switch from the Visual to the Advanced by pressing "Edit in Advanced" this will allow you to edit your filter in the syntax mode. This can be useful when adding/editing multiple filters. Note that you cannot switch back to the Visual mode unless you clear Adavanced.
7. When your happy click "Save"
8. Your filter defintion will then appear next to the three dots and you can name your filter (in this example we've called it "Home Owners") and then you can set your filter on your dataset:
If you've named your filter, the name will appear at the top of your table. Whether you name the filter or not, you will see "Share of total":
Create More Complex Filters
The steps 1-8 above will also allow you to create a filter that draws in answer choices from multiple variables. This time however, we'll spend more time adding variables and codes to our filter.
For our example we will narrow the Howm Owner filter by adding filters for a specific age range.
Using the filter builder, we've added 18-44 AND Home Owners as our filter:
The combined filter logic can be modified using the buttons:
- Use the + button to select AND/OR logic.
- These two icons at either end of the filter are used to select either single or double parentheses as needed.
- Use the X to delete a filter.
Click Save to complete building of the filter.
Our final filtered table looks like this:
Manually Set a Definition
The filter definition that the Filter Builder creates uses the "syntax" form.
You can type this syntax directly, if you are familiar with the logic language.
To do this you select Add to Advanced or Edit in Advanced instead of Add to Visual and enter the syntax as show below. These are the variables and codes used to create the "Home Owners Aged 18-44" filter:
If you make further changes to this filter, (for example, expanding the age range out to 54-year-olds) then you can add the additional code (in this example we added ";5") and then click "Recalculate Total". Clicking "Recalculate Total" will update your filter, then you can click save. See an example below:
The final table looks like this:
