Spreadsheet Practice

How to use QUERY with a text condition in Google Sheets

Google Sheets formula

=QUERY(A1:F13,"select A, B, F where C = 'East'",1)

Put the text in single quotes inside the query: =QUERY(A1:F13,"select A, B, F where C = 'East'",1) returns the East orders.

Result on the example
a 6-row list that spills from H1 in H1
Excel
See below

See it work

The formula is already in H1. Change any input and the result updates, or edit the formula to experiment.

How it works

The whole query is text in double quotes, so a text value inside it goes in single quotes: 'East'. Without them, QUERY reads East as the name of a column and returns an error. The comparison is exact and case-sensitive.

=QUERY(A1:F13,"select A, B, F where C = 'East'",1)

Result{6 rows × 3 cols} "Date", "Rep", "Revenue", 46206, …

  1. A1:F1313 rows × 6 cols: "Date", "Rep", "Region", "Product", …

    A range: 13 rows × 6 columns.

  2. QUERY(A1:F13,"select A, B, F where C = 'East'",1){6 rows × 3 cols} "Date", "Rep", "Revenue", 46206, …

    QUERY: Runs a SQL-like query: select, where, group by, order by, limit, label.

    • dataA1:F1313 rows × 6 cols: "Date", "Rep", "Region", "Product", …
    • query"select A, B, F where C = 'East'"
    • headers1

In Excel

Excel has no QUERY function. Use FILTER with the text test: =CHOOSECOLS(FILTER(A2:F13,C2:C13="East"),1,2,6).

Other ways to do it

Each one was run on the same example sheet.

FormulaResultWhen to use it
=QUERY(A1:F13,"select A, B, F where C != 'East'",1)spills 8 × 3Different result!= (or <>) keeps every row except East. The seven orders from the other regions.
=QUERY(A1:F13,"select A, B, F where C matches 'East|West'",1)spills 8 × 3Different resultmatches takes a regular expression, so one test can accept several values. East and West orders.

Common mistakes

  • where C = East without quotes returns an error saying the column East doesn't exist.
  • Text tests are case-sensitive: 'east' doesn't match East. Use lower(C) = 'east' if the data's capitals vary.
  • Trailing spaces in the data ("East ") stop an exact match. Use C contains 'East' or clean the column with TRIM.

Try it yourself

Same data, empty answer cell. Your formula is graded instantly, then re-checked on changed data, so a typed-in number won't pass.

Use QUERY with a text condition

In H1, use QUERY to return the Date, Rep and Revenue of every order from the East region.

Questions

How do I use the value from a cell instead?

Join it into the text: "where C = '"&I1&"'". See the cell reference answer.

How do I match part of the text?

Use contains or like: where D contains 'Widget'.

Checked by running on 2026-10-30: every formula and result on this page was calculated by the Spreadsheet Practice formula engine.