Filter a view

Requirements: a role that can edit the collection. Only fields marked searchable can be filtered.

A filter is what turns a whole collection into the slice you actually want to look at. The conditions available depend on the type of field you are filtering — which is why choosing field types deliberately pays off later.

What each kind of field offers

• Text. Contains a word or phrase, or equals it exactly. Contains also accepts several values at once, matching an entry that has any of them — useful for a quick "anything mentioning A, B, or C".
• Numbers and prices. Equals, greater than, less than, at least, at most, or between two values — so "deals over 10,000" or "orders between 50 and 200" are direct.
• Dates. On a specific date, before, after, or between two dates.
• Option fields. Any of a set of choices — priority is high or urgent — or all of them, when an entry must carry every one you picked.
• Lists and tags. Contains a value, any of several, or all of several.
• Yes/no fields. True or false.
• Links to other records. Pick the specific entries to match — all orders for these two customers.
• People. Pick the specific team members — everything owned by these two.
• Email, phone, address. Match an exact value across whichever one an entry holds — an entry with three phone numbers matches if any of them is the one you asked for.
• Empty. Nearly every type supports "is empty", which is the fastest way to find records missing something they should have.

Combining conditions

Conditions stack, and every one must hold — "open", "over 10,000", and "closing this quarter" together give exactly the deals meeting all three. Build up rather than starting broad: add one condition, look, add the next. It is far easier to see which condition emptied a view when you added it a moment ago.

Two things that catch people out

Save absolute dates, not relative ones. A range like "this week" or "the last 7 days" is worked out at the moment you set it and stored as the actual dates it resolved to. It does not keep sliding forward on its own — so a saved view built on "this week" will quietly still be showing that original week later. For a saved view, state the dates you mean.

Some fields cannot be filtered at runtime. Structured fields that hold nested objects will accept a filter but will not apply it — the view returns everything as though the condition were not there. If a filter appears to have no effect at all, this is likely why; filter on a plain field alongside it instead.

Notes and limitations

• Only searchable fields can be filtered or shown as columns — see add or change a field.
• All conditions must hold — they narrow together rather than offering alternatives. Use a field's own "any of" option when you want alternatives.
• Relative date ranges are resolved when saved, not when the view is opened.
• Nested-object fields are not enforced at runtime even though the filter saves.
• A saved view is edited by whoever created it — others copy it rather than changing it.

Related

Creating and saving a view is in create and save a view; what views are for is in views and record layouts. When the answer should be a total rather than a list of matching entries, use a report instead.