How to isolate key rows in a very long table?

[RasmusA]

Dear MrExcel community,

I have a long list of data (10s of thousands of rows). Its behavioural data on a fish moving in and out of different 3 different zones (DECR, OFF, and INCR) in an aquarium. I need to separate/isolate the first row every time the fish move from one zone to another (bold in the raw data table). Right now, my only option is to process the data manually (I have no programming skills), but it will literally take 100s of hours. A colleague of mine mentioned this place and suggested I ask the community in here is there is a smarter way of doing it in excel?

I have provided an example below.

Raw data

	Time	INCR (out)	DECR (out)	Zone	Time
1	6/14/2017/3:10:24	77,54	50,29	DECR	15:10:55
2	6/14/2017/3:10:25	77,53	50,26	DECR	15:11:16
3	6/14/2017/3:10:26	77,54	50,25	DECR	15:11:17
4	6/14/2017/3:10:27	77,53	50,24	DECR	15:11:18
5	6/14/2017/3:10:28	77,53	50,23	DECR	15:11:20
6	6/14/2017/3:10:29	77,51	50,21	DECR	15:11:21
7	6/14/2017/3:14:54	76,4	44,95	DECR	15:16:56
8	6/14/2017/3:14:55	76,37	44,96	OFF	15:16:57
9	6/14/2017/3:14:56	76,38	44,96	OFF	15:16:59
10	6/14/2017/3:14:57	76,39	44,97	OFF	15:17:00
11	6/14/2017/3:15:07	76,4	44,98	OFF	15:17:12
12	6/14/2017/3:15:08	76,4	44,96	INCR	15:17:14
13	6/14/2017/3:15:09	76,4	44,96	INCR	15:17:15
14	6/14/2017/3:15:10	76,38	44,95	INCR	15:17:16
15	6/14/2017/3:15:11	76,36	44,94	INCR	15:17:17
16	6/14/2017/3:15:12	76,36	44,95	INCR	15:17:19
17	6/14/2017/3:15:13	76,36	44,95	INCR	15:17:20
18	6/14/2017/3:15:26	76,38	44,8	OFF	15:17:36
19	6/14/2017/3:15:27	76,39	44,8	OFF	15:17:37
20	6/14/2017/3:15:28	76,4	44,78	DECR	15:17:39
21	6/14/2017/3:15:29	76,37	44,78	DECR	15:17:40
22	6/14/2017/3:15:30	76,36	44,76	DECR	15:17:41
23	6/14/2017/3:15:31	76,37	44,74	DECR	15:17:42
24	6/14/2017/3:15:32	76,37	44,72	DECR	15:17:44

<tbody>
</tbody>

Desired data (isolated manually)

	Time	INCR (out)	DECR (out)	Zone	Time
1	6/14/2017/3:10:24	77,54	50,29	DECR	15:10:55
8	6/14/2017/3:14:55	76,37	44,96	OFF	15:16:57
12	6/14/2017/3:15:08	76,4	44,96	INCR	15:17:14
18	6/14/2017/3:15:26	76,38	44,8	OFF	15:17:36
20	6/14/2017/3:15:28	76,4	44,78	DECR	15:17:39

<tbody>
</tbody>

Best regards and thank you for taking the time to read my question.

Rasmus

 

[pgc01]

Hi Rasmus
Welcome to the board

Just add a new column where you check if the fish changed zone and filter.

In the example, in F2:

=(D2<>D1)

Copy down

In this column you'll have TRUE when the fish goes from one zone to another one.
Now filter with column F equal to TRUE and you have your result.

 

[mart37]

with filter
place in f3: =d3<>d2
copy down

 

[RasmusA]

Thank you very much! This have saved me A LOT of time!

Regards,

Rasmus