Filter basics

Filters show or hide information in your sheet. For example, use a filter to see all tasks that are due on a specific date, everything that’s currently assigned to you, or all items in a particular stage in a workflow.

Who can create and use filters

Anyone with access to a sheet can create a filter or apply a saved filter. You can apply a filter to a sheet via the Filter menu.

You need specific sharing permissions to do more with filters:

• To name and save a filter, you must be shared to the sheet with Editor permissions or higher.
• To share a filter so it can be used by anyone who has access to the sheet, you must be the sheet Owner, or shared to the sheet as an Admin. 

Sharing is available with Business plans and higher. For more information about plans and pricing, go to the Pricing page.

Unnamed vs. Named Filters

There are two types of filters: Unnamed Filter, and Named Filters. The filter you work with depends on your sharing permission in the sheet and your goals for filtering:

• Unnamed Filter 
  • Required permission: Anyone who has access to the sheet can work with this filter type. 
  • What you need to know: As you’re working, the Unnamed Filter you created keeps track of filter conditions you applied to a sheet. You can reuse and update the filter, but you can have only one Unnamed Filter at a time.
• Named Filter 
  • Required permission: Anyone with Editor or higher permissions to a sheet can name a filter to save it for later use. 
  • What you need to know: You can create multiple named filters. Sheet Admins and Owners can expose named filters to others, so that anyone who has access to the sheet can use those filters.

How to tell whether a filter is applied to your sheet

Filters impact all views in the sheet 

Rows you hide with a filter in grid view will also be hidden in card view, calendar view, and Gantt View.

To verify whether a filter is applied to your sheet, check the label on the Filter menu. The image below shows an example of a sheet with an active filter. 

Filters show the child rows in a collapsed parent row

If one or more child rows of a collapsed parent row meet the criteria of a filter you applied, Smartsheet will show those hidden child rows.

View the number of rows that are filtered

To see how many items are included in the filter over the total, hover over the filter name.