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  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