Creating a custom filter allows you to keep the data rows in a table that meet certain criteria and remove all other data rows from your view. The two examples below show how to create custom filters, depending on the type of data contained in the filtered column.
Example 1: Creating Custom Filters for Categorical Variables (and Dimensions)
For this example, we will filter table AB1700CSA01 from the Annual Business Survey to show data for businesses owned by people of Hispanic origin, following these steps:
- Hover over the Meaning of Ethnicity code column and click the three horizontal bars
- Click the Filter icon
- Click the check box for (Select All) to deselect all options
- Click the check box for Hispanic to select it
- Click Apply in the lower right of the pop-up window to apply the filter
- The table now shows data limited by your selected filter. If the variable you filtered is considered a non-key dimension, you will also see this change reflected in the URL. In this example &nkd=ETH_GROUP~020 is added to the URL after applying the filter. This means that if you revisit the table again later using the URL, it will take you to a view of the table that is already filtered by Hispanic ethnicity. Learn more about non-key dimensions in the
FAQ: How Do I Save My Results or Search?
Example 2: Creating Custom Filters for Continuous Variables
For this example, we will filter a view of EC1700BASIC for NAICS 622 (Hospitals) in all states to show which states that have 50 or more hospitals:
- Hover over the Number of Establishments column and click the three horizontal bars
- Click the Filter icon
- Because this is a continuous variable, you have more options to filter the data. Choose your desired option from the first dropdown menu: Greater than or equals
- Enter the value you would like to filter by: 50
- Click outside of the filter pop up box to return to the table view
- The table now contains data rows for states only when there are 50 or more hospitals.
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