Sorting, Filtering & Search

Every grid has three ways to narrow what you see: a sort on one column, a search across all columns, and a filter per column. They combine, and the database does the work — the browser never holds the whole entity.

Sorting

Click a column header to sort it. Clicking cycles through three states:

1. First click — ascending (▲)
2. Second click — descending (▼)
3. Third click — no sort

Only one column sorts at a time. Derived columns cannot be sorted.

Global search

The search box in the toolbar searches every visible column at once.

Search matches what a cell displays, not how the value is stored. 31-01-2026, 99.95, Yes and a referenced record's label all work.

• With Full-Text Search installed, the search uses CONTAINS() with prefix matching, so amster matches Amsterdam
• Several words are combined with AND: west amsterdam needs both
• Without Full-Text Search it falls back to LIKE — slower, but the same results

Column filters

The row under the column headers holds one filter box per column. Type what you see in the cell.

Filter boxes wait one second before firing, so a query does not run on every keystroke. Press Enter to apply at once. You can paste into a filter box.

Active filters are teal. The toolbar shows Clear N filters — click it to reset every filter on the entity.

The value list offers only what the column holds

Reference, number, Yes/No and date columns all share one rule: the list shows the values that really occur in that column, each with its record count, and adds (Blanks) only when some records have none.

This matters most on a reference column. A Branch pointing at Areas used to offer every Area in the model, including the ones nothing referenced, so you could pick a filter guaranteed to return nothing. It now offers the Areas in use, and says how many records each one has.

The counts describe the whole column, not the page on screen, and they ignore any other filter you have set. They load when you open the list, so opening a large entity is unaffected.

A Country column offering only the countries its records point at — five of the six defined — each with a count(click to enlarge)

Filter a number column by value or range

Number columns work like Excel's number filter. Click the chevron at the right of the filter box to open the panel.

The top half is the checkbox list of values with their counts, plus (Blanks). Tick any combination and click Apply.

The bottom half, Number filters, covers what a list cannot express:

Notes:

• The list and the operators are mutually exclusive, as in Excel. Choosing an operator clears the ticks; ticking a value clears the operator
• Records with no value are never matched by an operator. Use (Blanks) for those
• On a column with more distinct values than the list can usefully show, the panel says so and hides Select all. Use a comparison instead
• Select all takes what the list currently shows. With a search term active that means the matches only, and not the (Blanks) row, which the search hides
• A comparison value must fit the column: up to twelve digits before the decimal point and six after. A longer number is refused with Number is too large to filter on
• Yes/No columns get the list only — two values need no range

A number column's filter: the values present with their counts, and the Number filters section set to greater than or equal to 40(click to enlarge)

Filter a date column by year and month

Date columns get a tree of the years and months that actually occur in the column, next to the text box.

1. Click the chevron at the right of the date column's filter box.
2. Tick any combination of months. Each shows how many records fall in it.
3. Tick a year to take all of its months at once. A partly selected year shows a dash.
4. Click Apply.

Notes:

• The tree is built from the column's real values, so an empty month is never offered
• It loads when you open the filter, not when the grid loads
• Select all and Clear all act on everything currently visible
• The search box narrows the tree. Type May for one month, or 2026 to keep a whole year

Partial dates work in the text box

Because the filter matches the displayed date, a partial value selects a range without opening the tree:

The format follows the column's own Date format, so a column configured as YYYY-MM-DD is filtered as 2026-01-31. If the format carries a time, that is matched too: type 14:30 to find every record at that time.

How filters combine

1. The first active filter — global search, name or code — selects the matching rows directly. The whole dataset is never loaded into memory
2. Remaining filters narrow that result by successive elimination
3. Reference filters are applied last, as exact-match lookups

For measured response times on large entities, see Performance.

Related

• Grid Overview — where the search box and the filter reset live
• Selection & Bulk Operations — act on the rows a filter leaves behind
• Performance — benchmarks and what affects them
• Date & Time Formats — the format a date column is filtered in
• Install SQL Server — installing Full-Text Search