Forum Discussion
Which excel formula?
If you have Excel 2021 or newer (a subscription to Microsoft 365) then the FILTER function would be ideal.
However, there's always the question of whether it's a good idea to do what you're trying to do, even if it can be done. Would you care to describe what splitting these records out by area code is going to help accomplish? Excel works very well with single consolidated databases--records can readily be retrieved to a single sheet by area code (or city, state, etc) for use in a given moment. But maintaining that database is always easier and more reliable if it's kept as a single database.
For example, if somebody moves from New York to Washington (excuse my US-centric examples if you're elsewhere in the world), are you going to go to the trouble of deleting them from one sheet and adding them to another? And if you get interrupted half-way through, what happens. Using a single database enables you to just keep a single record and update it by whatever elements change, and that "dashboard sheet" for temporary use would automatically include them based on the new updated field.