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206 Part IV: Managing and Securing Data
list. You can use the Criteria button in the data form to quickly find the records that
need editing (this is especially helpful in longer data lists where it is no longer practi-
cal to search the records manually). When you click the Criteria button in the data
form, Excel clears all the field text boxes so that you can enter the criteria to search
for in the record that needs editing.

When entering the criteria for locating matching records in the data form, you can use
the question mark (?) and the asterisk (*) wildcard characters just as you do when
using Excel Find feature to locate cells with particular entries (see Chapter 4).
When using the Criteria button in the data form to find records, you can use the
following comparative operators when entering search criteria in fields that use
numbers or dates:

Equal to (=) for finding records the same the text, value, or date you enter
Greater than (>) for finding records after the text characters (in the alphabet) or
the date, or larger than the value you enter
Greater than or equal to (>=) for finding records the same as the text characters,
date, or value you enter or after the characters (in the alphabet), after the date,
or larger than the value
Less than (<) for finding records before the text characters (in the alphabet) or
date or smaller than the value you enter

Less than or equal to (<=) for finding records the same as the text characters,
date, or value you enter or before the characters (in the alphabet) or the date, or
larger than the value
Unequal to (<>) to find records not the same as the text, value, or date you enter

For example, to find all the records where the employee’s annual salary is $50,000,
you can enter =50000 or simply 50000 in the Salary field text box. However, to find all
the records for employees whose annual salaries are less than or equal to $35,000,
you enter <=35000 in the Salary field text box. To find all the records for employees
with salaries greater than $45,000, you would enter >45000 in the Salary field text box
instead. If you wanted to find all of the records where the employees are female and
make more than $35,000, you would enter F in the Gender field text box and >35000 in
the Salary field text box in the same Criteria data form.

Try It

Exercise 16-2: Finding and Editing Records with the Data Form
Open the Exercise16-2.xls file in your Chapter 16 folder in the My Practice Spreadsheets
folder on your hard disk or in the Excel Workbook folder on the workbook CD-ROM.
This workbook contains a much more complete version of the Employee Data List
you created in the previous exercise. You use this version of the Employee Data List
worksheet to practice using the data form to find records that need editing:

1. Open the data form for the Employee Data List and then select the Criteria
button.
Excel displays a blank data form where you can enter the search criteria in the
appropriate fields.
You need to find Sherry Caufield’s record in the data list to edit it. Unfortunately,
you don’t remember how she spells her last name, only that it begins with a C
(and not a K) and that she works in the Boston office.
2. Enter C* the Last Name field and Boston in the Location field.