Drop Down Menu to Create Lists

[analyticalchemist94]

Hey guys. I wanted to know if anyone knew how to code in a drop down menu that could separate a column full of variables into specific lists. For example.

If I have the following in column A: Abe, Bill, Charlie, Darlene, Emily, Frank, Gloria, Henry, Irene, Jack, Kelly, Larry, Melanie, Nathan, Olga, Paul, Quinten, Renee, Suzie, Tom, Ursula, Valerie, William, Xavier, Yves, Zelma

But now let's say I want a drop down menu that has the following: girls, boys, vowels, consonants.

If I pick vowels then the Excel sheet will hide all names except: Abe, Emily, Irene, Olga and Ursula
If I pick girls then the Excel sheet will hide all names except: Darlene, Emily, Gloria, Irene, Kelly, Melanie, Olga, Renee, Suzie, Ursula, Valerie and Zelma

You can do the same for boys or consonants.

On a particular assay I'm working on I have about 600 different compounds in a list I need to sort 15-20 different ways. I have been using buttons at the top where I can click the button and it hide the compounds not associated with that button, but I haven't been able to figure out how to code in for a drop down menu. When I first started this assay there were only 2-3 variations, but now I have 15-20 and the buttons are too numerous and unmanageable.

Does anyone have any ideas about this or have experience implementing it. Is this possible?

Thanks for any help!

 

[RobVos]

How do you tell the gender of each name?

 

[analyticalchemist94]

Ahhhh good question and a key piece I left out! The way I have it set up with the buttons at the top is that say in column A I have the names as outlined above. So for example, Emily would be sorted in the "girls" group and the "vowels" group. In column B I would have a letter, i.e., ABCDE and then I assign the button a letter. So say I have a button labeled "Girls" and I assign it the letter "A". Then if the letter "A" is in column B, then EXCEL knows the rows to hide are the ones that don't have the letter "A" in them.

I know you can also put a filter into the column and maybe that's the easy solution here, but I wasn't sure if I could replace my buttons at the top with a drop down menu that would do the same.

I hope this makes sense. It's one of those "I know what I want to do" but not exactly sure how if I'm explaining it correctly! Thanks for taking a look.

 

[RobVos]

You could put the code that makes you buttons work into a worksheet change event tied to the dropdown list.

 

[analyticalchemist94]

but would this allow me to get rid of the buttons entirely and use the drop down menu exclusively to sort?