Querying Using Excel

Asking questions of the data If you imagine the master table as a set, when

you ask questions of the data you will filter out information into subsets eg all the servants, the women, the children, the male defendants found guilty of murder etc.

In each case go to Data then Filter Next to each heading a box with a down arrow

appears. This will form the basis for our queries.

Meeting exact conditions For example all those presented at the

Frankpledge court Click on the down arrow next to the ROLE

column. Click on Presented. To return to the whole table, click on the clear

button The bottom line tells you the number of

records filtered from the total.

Text filters Use the text filters to refine the search For example using does not equal or does not

contain Or begins with/ends with The custom autofilter allows wildcards. So b*r

will select butcher, baker, builder etc. *smith will select blacksmith, gunsmith, coachsmith. Sm?th will select Smith and Smyth

Ranges It is possible in numerical fields to select data

within a certain range. For example to select all the presentments

between 1600 and 1605 use the Number Filter option and choose greater than 1600 and less than 1605.

The Top Ten… function allows you to select the ten most numerous values.

Pivot tables To create frequency counts or cross

tabulations use the Pivot Table option The pivot table allows you to select fields to

count or to summarise You can count up all the butchers, bakers and

candlestick makers Or you can compare columns such as age and

sex or role and place