Question

I have a situation where a defined table structure changes based on a control type (for my instance it is a Product Brand). In that Table there are two column/fiels that will need to be used to populate two Data-Validation cells on the same worksheet. These cells are above the Table, and “ideally” would be used to filter the Table’s information based on the data populating the Data-Validation cells.

Data-Validation List Method Logic:

  Dim str As String
  str = Join(UniqueValues(ws,srcrng), ",")
  Dim val As Excel.Validation
  Set val = range(destrng).Validation
  val.Delete
  val.Add xlValidateList, xlValidAlertStop, xlBetween, str

• ws: Worksheet where @srcrng is located
• srcrng: Range to extract the Unique values from
• destrng: Range where the Data-Validation will be attached to. This will be controlled to be only a single cell and error out if has more than 1 row and 1 column.

The Above method is encapsulated in a method which is passed two parameters Table1[Column1] and DataValidationCell1 in VBA.

Just to stave off any questions, here is the method UniqueValues logic:

Function UniqueValues(ws As Worksheet, col As String) As Variant

   Dim rng As range: Set rng = ws.range(col)
   Dim dict As New Scripting.Dictionary

   If Not (rng Is Nothing) Then
      Dim cell As range, val As String

      For Each cell In rng.Cells
         val = CStr(cell.Value)
         If InStr(1, val, ",") Then
            val = Replace(val, ",", Chr(130))  <-- Handles the fact i have commas in the field
         End If

         If Not dict.Exists(val) Then
            dict.Add val, val
         End If

      Next cell
   End If

   'Return value as Variant Array
   UniqueValues = dict.Items
End Function

Questions:

1. How do i account for Data-Validation changes?
2. Can i use Data-Validation to Filter a Table?
3. Since Pivot-Table is not a plausible option, due to the nature of the information, and if Data-Validation Filtering is not functionally possible, what alternative do i have?

On #3, i would like to not place a Drop-Down List, if at all possible.

Answer 1

Data-Validation is a way to restrict what kind of data can be entered in a cell (or a range of cells) http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-data-validation-to-cells-HP010072600.aspx

So your question is not specific to data validation. Your question seems to be about filtering a table based on the values entered in two cells at the top of that table (that happen to have data validation applied to them). Am I correct? If so: you are going to need to run a macro everytime those data validation cells are changed. You could make this automatic with Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range) or you could have an “update filters” button that would be slightly less “cool”. Either way, you simply need to link in a macro with those two cells and have them update the filter on the table based on the values of those two cells.

Here is an example of a macro that would do something like I described:

Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range) 

    ActiveSheet.AutoFilterMode = False 
    Range("A3:H20").AutoFilter 
    Range("A3:H20").AutoFilter Field:=2, Criteria1:=Range("A1").Text 

End Sub 

This is from: http://www.ozgrid.com/forum/showthread.php?t=85547

Hope this helps. Good Luck.