Excel® 2010 Workbook for Dummies®

Chapter 17. Building and Maintaining Data Lists

In This Chapter

• Creating and editing data lists

• Sorting the records in a data list

• Subtotaling values in a data list

• Filtering out unwanted data in data lists

• Querying data in external database tables

In addition to its considerable computational abilities, Excel is also very accomplished at maintaining vast collections of related data in what are commonly referred to as data lists or, less often, database tables. This chapter gives you a chance to practice all the basic aspects of creating and maintaining data lists in Excel, including building the list, adding and editing its data, filtering the list to temporarily remove unwanted data, subtotaling values in a data list, and creating lists from data external to the worksheet.

Creating a Data List

In Excel, a data list or database table is a table of worksheet data with a special structure. Unlike the other types of data tables that you might create in Excel, a data list uses only column headings (technically known as field names) to identify the different kinds of items the data list tracks. Each column in the data list contains information for each item you track in the database, such as the client's company name or telephone number (technically known as a field of the data list). Each row in the data list contains complete information about each entity that you track in the data list, such as ABC Corporation or National Industries (technically known as a record of the data list).

All you ...