Building and Filtering Databases in Excel is a course in designing data tables in Excel that follow database principles, controlling data entry with Excel tables and data validation, filtering on many conditions with Advanced Filter and the FILTER function, sorting and removing duplicates. It suits warehouse and data processing staff, teachers and students preparing for internships.
Many organisations keep product, customer or supplies records in Excel, but as the data grows the same problems keep appearing: codes lose their leading zeros, text and numbers are mixed together, filtering on several conditions means clicking through one box at a time, duplicates are never fully removed, and month names do not sort in calendar order. Most of these problems start with a table that was not designed with database thinking from the beginning.
This course applies database design principles to Excel, from laying out the table, separating codes from text, and controlling data entry with Excel tables and data validation, to filtering with AutoFilter, Advanced Filter and the FILTER, UNIQUE and SORT functions, sorting by colour and by a custom order, and saving filtered views to recall later. It closes with a warehouse database workshop.
Course Details
This course is the 2026 edition of the Excel database building and filtering course, rewritten for Excel in Microsoft 365 and Excel 2024. It runs for 1 day, 6 hours (09:00-16:00), as lectures with labs on a stock register and supplies transactions, at Beginner to Intermediate level. The morning covers table design, separating codes from text, Excel tables, data validation and AutoFilter. The afternoon covers Advanced Filter, the FILTER, UNIQUE and SORT functions, advanced sorting and saving filtered views with Sheet View. Learners take home the practice files, answer files and the warehouse database built in the workshop.
Day 1: Building and Filtering Databases in Excel
No public rounds are open right now. Join the waiting list and we will contact you first when the next round opens, or ask us on LINE. Or call 02-570-8449 or 088-807-9770
Make each column a single field holding one type of data and each row a single record. Use one header row with unique names, avoid merged cells, blank rows or columns inside the table and subtotals within the data, and store codes with leading zeros as text. Then convert the range to an Excel table with Ctrl+T so formatting, formulas and input rules are copied to new rows automatically.
Advanced Filter uses a criteria range on the sheet: copy the column headings and type conditions beneath them. Conditions on the same row are combined with AND, and conditions on different rows with OR. Go to Data then Advanced, select the data and criteria ranges, and choose to copy the result elsewhere with only the headings you need, which extracts selected fields. Formula results can also be used as criteria.
The Filter command on the Data tab hides rows that do not match in the original table, and you have to filter again whenever the condition changes. The FILTER function in Microsoft 365 and Excel 2024 returns the results as a new table elsewhere and updates immediately when the data or the condition changes. You can combine conditions with * for AND and + for OR, and wrap it in SORT, UNIQUE or CHOOSECOLS to sort, remove duplicates or pick only certain fields.
A normal sort puts month names in alphabetical order, so use a custom list instead. Go to Data then Sort, choose the month column, set Order to Custom List and pick an existing month list, or create your own, such as Thai month names, regions or an organisation's job titles. A custom list works for both sorting and AutoFill.
It suits warehouse staff, data processing and IT staff, teachers and students preparing for internships who work with large amounts of data in Excel. You should be comfortable with Windows and already use Excel confidently, but no database knowledge is needed.
Yes. It can be run in-house for your team, with examples adapted to your own work, such as stock lists or customer records like those your team already keeps. You can request a quotation from this page, or contact us on LINE @itgenius or by phone on 02-570-8449.
Articles are published in Thai.
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