Hi all,

This query was originally recommended by me to be posted in this forum after I saw it in the General forum:

http://www.excelforum.com/excel-gene...-data-set.html

Apologies for this resulting in a duplicate post of some sorts. I assumed that the OP had given up on this thread when he told me that he wasn't in a position to use Access.

My first thought was that this sounded more like something suitable to a database than to Excel. My second (belated) thought was - like most of you - that this could simply be achieved by using autofilters.

I am still not entirely sure why the OP is not willing to go down the (far simpler) option of using this method, though he intimated that he did not wish the users to be able to view all data.

I agree with tigeravatar that a formula-based (necessarily array) solution is not going to be the best method by any means, though I have said that I will give it a go (after agreeing on a limited number of search criteria and exact matching only).

However, whilst I'm attempting that, it might be worth asking if anyone knows of a VBA solution that could allow the use of autofilters yet hide the source data from view, so allowing all options for each criteria to be seen when selecting a filter, yet only displaying the results of each selection?

Suggest to any moderators viewing that one or the other of this and the above thread are discontinued.

Regards