Sorting by Columns

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 29, 2019)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

2

Most sorting in Excel is done by row, meaning that you order the rows based on the contents of a particular column in the information being sorted. At times you may have a need to change the orientation of your sorting, meaning you need to sort columns based on the contents of a particular row.

Excel makes sorting by column easy, although it is not particularly intuitive. Simply follow these steps:

  1. Select the range of cells you want to sort. Make sure you select the column headers in the range.
  2. Choose the Sort option from the Data menu. Excel displays the Sort dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

    3. Figure 1. The Sort dialog box.

  3. Click on the Options button. Excel displays the Sort Options dialog box. (See Figure 2.)

    4. Figure 2. The Sort Options dialog box.

  4. Choose the Sort Left to Right option button.
  5. Click on OK to close the Sort Options dialog box.
  6. Click on OK to sort your data.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2709) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is 5 + 9?

2023-03-02 16:00:35

Allen

My guess, Stephen, is that the ones that are out of sequence aren't using a space between the words. It looks like a space, but is probably a different character, such as a non-breaking space.

-Allen

2023-03-02 13:37:25

Stephen Porter

Hi Allen

I have a list of data (text) in a column which will not sort correctly. I will give you an example

ABLAZING GRACE
ABLE BEAUTY
ABLE FAME
ABLE HIT
ABLE IVY
ABLE LASS
ABLE LOTTY
ABLE MAGPIE
ABLE MILLIE
ABLE QUEST
ABLE RAMON
ABLE SABLE
ABLE TO RUN
ABLE VIVA
ABLE BONNIE
ABLE CUSTOMER
ABLE FAME
ABLE LANE
ABLEBE

If I retype any of the wrongly sorted names ie ABLE LANE then do a resort, it puts the retyped name into it's correct position. How can I avoid having to go through the whole of my list, as I have over 90,000 lines

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