How to avoid using subfolders in libraries and use views to show all data

Question

Hi all
I am very new to Sharepoint design so hopefully I can explain what I need properly.
I have a sharepoint site which I upload a lot of data to. Most of the data I can categorise into subfolders (Location and Year). Instead of having the same subfolders in each library I wanted the user to select the Location and Year they want from a dropdown
and then refresh a List webpart based on their requirements.
Is this easy to do?
Would I have to create new columns called Location and Year in order to do this?
Thanks for any help
Raiyan

Answer 1

Yes, you can do so. 
You can create a view to show data based on location and year
http://blog.pentalogic.net/2008/10/advanced-sharepoint-view-and-filters/
http://howididit-sharepoint.blogspot.in/2012/04/filtering-lookup-columns.html
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18362853/how-do-i-filter-by-today-and-time-in-sharepoint-list-view
In SharePoint Designer I edit the calm query from my view in Advanced Mode. And I add
IncludeTimeValue="True" in calm tag Value Type="DateTime". I'm filtering my results by time.  
<Query>
<OrderBy>
<FieldRef Name="Modified" Ascending="FALSE"/>
</OrderBy>
<Where>
<Or>
<Gt>
<FieldRef Name="Start"/>
<Value Type="DateTime" IncludeTimeValue="True">
<Today/>
</Value>
</Gt>
<Gt>
<FieldRef Name="TimeOver"/>
<Value Type="DateTime" IncludeTimeValue="True">
<Today/>
</Value>
</Gt>
</Or>
</Where>
</Query>Also check thishttp://office.microsoft.com/en-in/sharepoint-server-help/create-list-relationships-by-using-unique-and-lookup-columns-HA101729901.aspx