Beginner · Lesson 05 of 22

Views: Filter, Sort, Group & Hide

Same table, infinite perspectives. Build saved views that filter, sort, and group your data — showing exactly what each person needs to see.

⏱ ~20 min 🔭 Views & filtering ✅ Prerequisite: Lesson 04
01 — What Views Are 02 — Creating a View 03 — Filters 04 — Sort & Group 05 — Hidden Columns & Lock 06 — Real-world Recipes Practice
01 — What Views Are

One table. Many lenses.

A view is a configured lens on a table. It does not copy or move data — it displays the same rows and columns through a set of filter, sort, group, and visibility rules you have configured. Change a cell value in any view and the change appears in every other view of that table instantly, because they all read from a single source of truth.

Multiple views let you serve multiple audiences without duplicating your data. Your "All Tasks" table might power a "My Open Tasks" view for individual contributors, a "Team Kanban" view for stand-ups, and a "Completed This Month" report for management — all simultaneously live, all zero maintenance.

Each view remembers its own configuration independently. Filter settings, sort order, group-by column, and column visibility are all stored per view. Changing the sort in one view does not disturb any other view.

📋

Ad-hoc arrangement

A temporary configuration you set up while working — sort by due date, scan what is urgent, then move on. Not saved as a named view; resets next session.

📌

Saved named view

A named, persistent configuration that lives in the sidebar. Anyone with access reopens it and sees the exact same filtered, sorted arrangement every time.

Views are not copies Editing a row in any view updates the underlying table — and every other view reflects that change immediately. There is one version of the data. Views are just different ways of looking at it.
02 — Creating a View

Three ways to add a view.

You can create a new saved view in any of three ways. All three result in a named, independently configurable view of the same underlying table.

🖱️

From the table header

Open a table, click the view switcher in the top-left corner (shows "Default view" or a table icon), then click + Add view. Name it, choose a type, and configure.

⌨️

/view command on canvas

Type /view anywhere on a canvas page. Coda opens the slash command picker where you select a table and an existing or new view to embed.

📄

From another page

Use /view on a different page — like a dashboard — to embed and simultaneously create a new view of any table, from any page in the doc.

View switcher — Tasks table
🗄️ Default view All rows
👤 My Tasks Filtered
📅 This Week Filtered
Add view
03 — Filters

Show only the rows that matter right now.

A filter rule has three parts: a column to evaluate, an operator that defines the relationship, and a value to compare against. You can stack multiple rules with AND (all conditions must be true) or OR (any one condition must be true). Rows that fail the filter are hidden — not deleted — and reappear the moment the filter changes or they gain a matching value.

Filter operators reference
Operator Works on Example
is Any type Status is "In Progress"
is not Any type Status is not "Done"
contains Text, Select List Tags contains "Design"
does not contain Text, Select List Tags does not contain "Archived"
is empty Any type Owner is empty
is not empty Any type Due Date is not empty
is before Date Due Date is before today
is after Date Created At is after Jan 1 2025
is between Date Due Date is between Today and next Friday

AND vs OR logic

When you stack two filter rules, Coda asks whether they connect with AND or OR. AND narrows the result; OR broadens it.

AND — all conditions must be true

Owner is "Alice"
AND Status is "In Progress"

Shows only Alice's in-progress tasks. A task owned by Alice that is "Done" won't appear. A task by Bob that is "In Progress" won't either.

OR — any condition can be true

Status is "Blocked"
OR Priority is "High"

Shows anything that is blocked or high priority — or both. Good for an "attention required" view that catches problems from multiple angles at once.

04 — Sort & Group

Order rows and stack them into clusters.

Sorting reorders displayed rows without touching the underlying data. You can set a primary sort and one or more secondary sorts — Coda resolves ties in the primary sort using the secondary sort. For dates, ascending = oldest first; descending = newest first. For text, ascending = A→Z.

Grouping reorganises rows into collapsible stacks based on a select or person column value. Every row whose "Status" column says "In Progress" gets bundled under an "In Progress" header. Coda shows the row count next to each group header automatically, and you can collapse any group to hide its rows and scan just the bucket names.

Tasks — grouped by Status, sorted by Due Date within each group
In Progress 2 rows
TaskDue DatePriority
Fix login bug Apr 8 High
Review design comps Apr 10 Medium
To Do 2 rows
Update changelog Apr 14 Medium
Write release notes Apr 18 Low
Done 7 rows — collapsed
Rows within each group are sorted by Due Date ascending. Combine sort + group to get the most urgent item at the top of every bucket.
Combine sort and group Group by Status to create your buckets, then add a sort by Due Date (ascending) so the nearest deadline floats to the top of each group. Both settings are stored in the view and apply together every time it opens.
05 — Hidden Columns & Lock

Declutter without deleting data.

Every view has its own column visibility settings. Hiding a column in a view removes it from the display — but the data is still there. Other views that show the column still display it. Formulas that reference the column still work. Automations that read or write it still fire. The column just is not rendered as a grid column in this particular view.

This is extremely useful for building role-specific views. A "Client Summary" view might show only Task Name, Status, and Due Date, hiding internal columns like Notes, Effort Estimate, and Cost Code. The data team still sees all columns in their view. Neither side has to compromise on layout.

Column visibility panel — "Client Summary" view
Visible
Task Name
Status
Due Date
Hidden (still in data)
Internal Notes
Effort Estimate
Cost Code
Hidden columns are still fully usable in formulas and still editable when you open a row's detail panel. They just don't render as grid columns in this view.
Lock filter: prevent viewers from overriding In the filter panel, click the lock icon next to any filter rule. The rule gets a padlock badge and becomes read-only for viewers — they can still sort within the view or expand rows, but they cannot remove or change the filter. Essential when sharing a view with people who have edit access but should always see a pre-filtered slice.
06 — Real-world View Recipes

Three views you will build again and again.

The real power of views becomes clear when you start building purpose-specific lenses for daily workflows. Here are three recipes to implement immediately in any task or project table.

👤 My Tasks

Filter: Owner is @Me
AND Status is not Done
Sort: Due Date ascending

The daily driver view. Shows only your uncompleted tasks, closest deadline first. Lock the Owner filter so it cannot be accidentally removed.

📅 This Week

Filter: Due Date
  is between Today and
  DateAdd(Today, 7, "days")
Sort: Due Date ascending

Everything due in the next 7 days across the whole team. Add a group by Owner to see each person's weekly load at a glance.

🗂️ Kanban by Status

View type: Board
Group by: Status
(To Do / In Progress / Done)

Drag cards between status columns to update values. Board view is the same data as table view — just displayed as swim-lane cards instead of rows.

Views stack freely You can have dozens of saved views on one table — one per team member, one per project phase, one per reporting period. Each is independent. Creating more views never affects the underlying data or slows the doc down.
Practice

Fill in the blanks.

Filter, Sort & Group

5 Questions
Question 1 of 5
You want to find all tasks tagged with "Design" inside a Select List column. The correct filter operator is: ________
Question 2 of 5
To filter for overdue tasks, you add a rule: Due Date ________ today.
Question 3 of 5
When two rows share the same Due Date, Coda uses the ________ sort to decide their relative order.
Question 4 of 5
In a "Client Summary" view you set the Internal Notes column to ________. The data is still there — it just isn't displayed.
Question 5 of 5
To prevent viewers from removing or changing a filter rule in a shared view, you set the filter to ________.
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