One of the core features of views is the ability to filter records according to particular criteria (rows, in grid views). When a record is filtered, it is not deleted—it's just hidden from the particular view you're using to look at your table.
Try adding filters when:
- You're trying to quickly find a record or records that meet certain conditions (e.g. records that have a due date after X date and before Y date).
- You only need to focus on records that meet certain conditions (e.g., the records that have been assigned to me AND have not been marked as completed).
- You need to prevent people from seeing certain records in a view share link.
One great example of how to use filters is to archive old projects that are no longer relevant. Check out this video for a walkthrough of how to use filters, or read on for more information.
Adding a filter
You can add a filter by clicking the filter button in the view bar. This will bring up the filter menu. If your view has any filters applied already, you'll see them here; otherwise, you'll see a message informing you that no filters are applied to the current view.
To add a new filter, click the + Add filter option.
From here, you can set the filter field, filter operator, and comparison value so that you can make statements like "Where [Priority] [is any of] [High priority, Medium priority]" or "Where [Due date] [is before] [today]."
The filter field is the field you'd like to use to filter your records. For example, if you want to filter records based on the values in the Priority field, you would select the Priority field from the dropdown menu.
Next, you can select the filter operator you'd like to use. Which filter operators are available is determined by the field type: for example, text fields will have filter operators like "contains," "does not contain," "is empty," or "is not empty"; number fields will have filter operators like "is greater than" or "is less than."
Lastly, you'll need to select the comparison value. This is the value that you'll be comparing all your records to. So, for example, if you have a single or multiple select field, your comparison value will be one or more select options. (Sometimes, depending on your filter operator, you won't need to pick a comparison value—a filter operator like "is empty" or "is not empty" doesn't need one.)
When you're done setting the filter field, filter operator, and comparison value, you might notice that your filter field is now shaded with a light green color. This is to make it more obvious that there's been a filter applied in the view that you're currently using.
You can add more filters if you'd like to filter your records by multiple criteria—just click the + Add filter button again, then set the filter field, operator, and comparison value as needed.
If you have multiple filters, you can change the boolean operator from And (which is the default) to Or. This will make it so that the view will show any records matching either of the specified criteria.