How to filter values by first letter or last character in Excel?

For filtering values by first letter or last character in Excel, here we provide three methods. Please do as below tutorial shows.

Filter values by first letter or last character with Filter function
Filter values by first letter or last character with VBA code

Filter values by first letter or last character with Filter function

You can filter values by first letter or last character with the Filter function in Excel.

1. Select the entire column which you want to filter values by first letter or last character, and then click Data > Filter. See screenshot:

2. Now a little drop-down icon is displayed on the first cell of the selected column. Please click the drop-down icon > Text Filters > Begins With / Ends With. See screenshot:

Notes:

1). If you want to filter values by the first letter, please click the Begins With option in step 2. In the popping up Custom AutoFilter dialog box, enter the first letter you want to filter by into the blank box after begins with, and finally click the OK button.

For example, you type the letter “a” into the box, after clicking the OK button, all values begin with letter “a” will be filtered out immediately.

2). For filtering values by the last character, please click Ends With option in step 2. And in the popping up Custom AutoFilter dialog box, enter the last character you want to filter all values by into the blank box after ends with, and finally click the OK button. See screenshot:

After clicking the OK button, all values ends with the specified character will be filtered out at once.

Filter values by first letter or last character with VBA code

You can also use VBA code to filter values by first letter or last character in Excel.

1. Press Alt + F11 keys simultaneously to open the Microsoft Visual Basic Application window.

2. In the Microsoft Visual Basic Application window, click Insert > Module. And then copy and paste below code into the Module window.

VBA code: Filter by first letter or last character

Sub filterbyletter()
	Dim rng01 As Range
	Set rng01 = [A1:A8]
	rng01.Parent.AutoFilterMode = False
	rng01.Columns(1).AutoFilter Field: = 1, Criteria1: = "=a*", VisibleDropDown: = False
End Sub

Notes:

1). In the code, A1:A8 is the column range with values you want to filter. You can change it based on your needs.

2). a* means you are going to filter all values begin with letter a. And if you want to filter all values end with character a, please change a* to *a.

3). Press F5 key to run the code. And the values which meet the filtering criteria are filtered out immediately.

4). After running this code, you can clear the filter by clicking Data > Filter. See screenshot:

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