Increasing the AutoFilter Drop-Down Limit

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 31, 2019)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


1

If you use the AutoFilter feature of Excel, the drop-down list that appears at the top of a filtered column lists the unique entries in the filtered column. If there are many, many unique entries, then Excel lists only the first 1,000 unique entries in the drop-down list. If you have lists with lots of data, you may wonder if there is a way to increase the number of unique entries that appear.

Unfortunately, there is no way to increase this limit—it is hard-coded into Excel. There are, however, third-party solutions that allow you to count unique records from a list of records. If these are of interest, check www.ozgrid.com for their utilities, or check the following page at Chip Pearson's site:

http://www.cpearson.com/excel/Duplicates.aspx

Also, you might consider rethinking how you do filtering on the list. The whole idea behind AutoFiltering is to create small lists from large ones, and it can be reasonably argued that over a thousand records is not a small list.

Instead, you may want to use secondary lists. For instance, if you want to filter by last name, you might add a column that contains only the first letter of each last name. That would result in up to 26 unique items; choose one of the letters, then you can further refine the selection by choosing from the filtered last names within that letter. The "trouble" of clicking twice is offset by the overall data being much more manageable.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2403) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Picking a Chart Type

Microsoft Chart offers several different types of charts you can use to display your data. Here's how to pick the type ...

Discover More

Understanding Subroutines

When developing macros, you can create subroutines. This is a great way to reuse common code and make your programming ...

Discover More

Typing Check Marks into Excel

Need to enter a check mark into a cell? There are a number of ways you can get the desired character, depending on the ...

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 365 applications with VBA programming. Written in clear terms and understandable language, the book includes systematic tutorials and contains both intermediate and advanced content for experienced VB developers. Designed to be comprehensive, the book addresses not just one Office application, but the entire Office suite. Check out Mastering VBA for Microsoft Office 365 today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Finding Rows with Values in Two Columns

When you use Excel to input and store information, you need to be concerned with whether the information meets your ...

Discover More

Setting Up Custom AutoFiltering

The filtering capabilities of Excel are very helpful when you are working with large sets of data. You can create a ...

Discover More

Filtering to a Date Range in the Past

If you have a large number of data records, each with an associated date, you might want to filter that data so you see ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is five minus 1?

2019-12-10 04:53:07

KK Greece

10,000, not 1,000


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.