Topic: Sorting

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Controlling Sorting Order You can sort items in a data table in either ascending or descending order. Another way to affect sorting order, as described in this tip, is to change whether Excel pays attention to the case of the text in the sort range. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Creating a Sort Order If you have special sorting needs, Excel can help you out. It will even allow you to create custom non-standard sorting orders. This tip explains how you can do that, and how that feature can benefit the work you do. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Determining Sorting Criteria Excel makes it easy to sort data, but once it is sorted, then determining how the sort was done is not nearly as easy. There are a couple of approaches outlined in this tip, but figuring out a prior sort order is often more trouble then simply resorting the data. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Fixing Odd Sorting Behavior When you sort data that contains both numbers and text, you may not get exactly the result that you expected. To know what is going on, you have to know how Excel views your data. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Incomplete and Corrupt Sorting Using the sorting tools, on the toolbar, may result in some unwanted results, such as jumbled data. If this happens to you, the best thing to do (as described in this tip) is to figure out exactly what is being sorted by Excel. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Non-standard Sorting If you place data on multiple lines in a cell, there may come a time when you need to sort the data based on the information in the second line of the cell. This is easier conceived than done, but the techniques in this tip will help you achieve the desired results. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Performing Complex Sorts Most sorting tasks in Excel are straightforward and simple. Excel has a very robust sorting capability, however, provided that you know how to take advantage of it. This tip explains the various ways you can perform more complex sorts of a portion of a data list. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Recognizing a Header Row when Sorting Excel provides a couple of ways you can sort the information in a worksheet. Before sorting, it pays to know whether Excel will recognize your header row properly or not. This tip explains how you can figure out this critical information. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Sorting a Range of Cells Excel allows for very versatile sorting, including a range of cells as well as entire rows and columns. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Sorting an Entire List The quickest way to sort a list is to use the sorting tools on the toolbar. It is helpful, however, to know how these tools affect your data. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Sorting by Colors Excel allows you to sort by the data within a list, but it doesn’t allow you to inherently sort by cell color. This tip shows you how to overcome that shortcoming, providing a macro that makes sorting by cell color a snap. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Sorting by Columns Excel has a variety of ways to sort the information in a worksheet. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Sorting by Fill Color Sorting data in a worksheet is easy, unless you want to sort by the color used to fill a range of cells. There are ways to do the sorting, however, as illustrated in this tip. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Sorting by Five Columns Excel allows you to sort but up to three columns, but you may want to sort by more than that. This tip provides ways you can get the desired sorted data. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Sorting Data Containing Merged Cells When formatting the layout of your worksheet, Excel allows you to easily merge adjacent cells together. This can cause havoc later, however, since you can’t sort ranges that contain merged cells. This tip provides some guidance on how you can get around this limitation. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Sorting Dates by Month Do you need to sort information in a worksheet by month name when all you have available in a column is a group of dates? You can do so by applying any of the techniques described in this tip. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Sorting Huge Lists When sorting large amounts of data, you may not always get the results you expect. In fact, it may appear that Excel hasn’t really sorted all you data. This tip describes what may be happening with your data and how you can achieve the sorting you require. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Sorting Letters and Numbers If you have data that includes a mixture of letters and numbers in the same cells, you may wonder why Excel sorts that data a particular way. This tip explains the sorting and what you can do to get more logical results. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Sorting or Filtering by Conditional Format Results Conditional formatting is a powerful feature of Excel. You cannot directly sort or filter based on the results of this special type of formatting, however. Using the results of a conditional formatting test can be achieved, but the easiest way is to change the structure of your worksheet. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Sorting while Ignoring Leading Characters If you have a large list of information that needs to be sorted while ignoring the first characters in the sort key, performing the sort can seem perplexing. The answer is to create your own key column and then do the sorting as desired. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Sorting Worksheets This VBA macro will sort all of the worksheets in a workbook by worksheet name. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Sorting ZIP Codes If you have both five- and nine-digit ZIP Codes in a column, you may have noticed that they don’t sort properly. The problem is related to how Excel treats the data, either numerically (five-digit codes) or as text (nine-digit codes). This tip explains how you can get the desired sorting results. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Too Many Formats when Sorting Sorting is one of the basic operations done in a worksheet. If your sorting won’t work and you instead get an error message, it could be because of the number of custom formats in your workbook. This tip provides information to help get rid of this problem. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Understanding Ascending and Descending Sorts Excel allows you to easily sort data in either ascending (small to large) or descending (large to small) order. The way that each type of sort affects your data depends, primarily, on the characteristics of the data being sorted. This tip explains, in detail, how your data will look after sorting. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

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