Thank you for your suggestion, but the top row with the same column headings
(field names) that the data  start at A2. If I do this advanced  filter with a
macro it works and the codes  is the following
Sheets("Criteria").Select
Sheets("database").Range("A3:U218").AdvancedFilter Action:=xlFilterCopy, _
CriteriaRange:=Range("A2:U22"), CopyToRange:=Range("A25:U300"), Unique:=
_
False
the problem lays when I assign a named range. But I cannot see the error. May be
somebody will detect it