Can rows be sorted in excel

Sorting data in Excel has been made quite easy with all the in-built options.

You can easily sort your data alphabetically, based on the value in the cells, or by cell and font color.

You can also do multi-level column sorting (i.e., sorting by column A and then by column B) as well as sorting rows (from left to right).

And if that was not enough, Excel also allows you to create your own custom lists and sort based on that too (how cool is that). So you can sort data based on shirt sizes (XL, L, M, S) or responses (strongly agree, agree, disagree) or intensity (high, medium, low)

Bottom line – there are just too many sorting options you have at your disposal when working with Excel.

And in this massive in-depth tutorial, I will show you all these sorting options and some cool examples where these can be useful.

Since this a huge tutorial with many topics, I am providing a table of content below. You can click on any of the topics and it will instantly take you there.

Accessing the Sorting Options in Excel

Since sorting is such a common thing needed when working with data, Excel provides a number of ways for you to access the sorting options.

Sorting Buttons in the Ribbon

The fastest way to access sorting options is by using the sorting buttons in the ribbons.

When you click on the Data tab in the ribbon, you will see the ‘Sort & Filter’ options. The three buttons on the left in this group is for sorting the data.

The two small buttons allow you to sort your data as soon as you click on these.

For example, if you have a data set of names, you can just select the entire dataset and click on any of the two buttons to sort the data. The A to Z button sorts the data alphabetically lowest to highest and the Z to A button sorts the data alphabetically highest to lowest.

This buttons also work with numbers, dates or times.

Personally, I never use these buttons as these are limited in what these can do, and there are more chances of errors when using these. But in case you need a quick sort (where there are no blank cells in the dataset), these can be a fast way to do it.

Sorting Dialog Box

In the Data tab in the ribbon, there is another Sort button icon within the sorting group.

When you click this Sort button icon, it opens the sorting dialog box (something as shown below).

Sorting dialog is the most complete solution for sorting in Excel. All the sorting related options can be accessed through this dialog box.

All the other methods of using sorting options are limited and don’t offer full functionality.

This is the reason I always prefer using the dialog box when I have to sort in Excel.

A major reason for my preference is that there is very less chance of you going wrong when using the dialog box. Everything is well structured and marked (unlike buttons in the ribbon where you may get confused which one to use).

In this tutorial, you’ll find me mostly using the dialog box to sort the data. This is also because some of the things I cover in certain sections (such as multi-level sorting or sorting from left-to-right) can only be done using the dialog box.

Keyboard Shortcut – If you need to sort data often in Excel, I recommend you learn the keyboard shortcut to open the sort dialog box. It’s ALT + A + S + S

Sorting Options in the Filter Menu

If you have applied filters to your dataset, you can also find the sorting options along with the filter options. A filter can be applied by selecting any cell in the dataset, clicking on the Data tab and clicking in the Filter icon.

Suppose you have a dataset as shown below and you have the filter applied.

When you click on the filter icon for any column (it’s the small downward pointing triangle icon at the right of the column header cell), you’ll see some of the sorting options there as well.

Note that these sorting options change based on the data in the column. So if you have text, it will show you the option to sort from A to Z or Z to A, but if you have numbers, it will show you options to sort from largest to smallest or smallest to largest.

Right-click options

Apart from using the dialog box, using right-click is another method that I sometimes use (it’s also super fast as it only takes two clicks).

When you have a dataset that you want to sort, right-click on any cell and it will show you the sorting options.

Note that you see some options that you don’t see in the ribbon or in the Filter options. While there is the usual sort by value and custom sort option (which opens the Sort dialog box), you can also see options such as Put selected Cell color/Font color/Formatting icon on the top.

I find this option quite useful as it allows me to quickly get all the colored cells (or cells with a different font color) together at the top. I often have the monthly expense data that I go through and highlight some cells manually. I can then use this option to quickly get all these cells together at the top.

Now that I have covered all the ways to access sorting options in Excel, let’s see how to use these to sort data in different scenarios.

Also read: How to Undo Sort in Excel (Revert to Original)

Sorting Data in Excel (Text, Numbers, Dates)

Caveat: Most of the times, sorting works even when you select a single cell in the dataset. But in some cases, you may end up with issues (when you have blank cells/rows/columns in your dataset). When sorting data, it’s best to select the entire data set and then sort it – just to avoid any chance of issues.

Based on the type of data you have, you can use the sorting options in Excel.

Sorting by Text

Suppose you have a dataset as shown below and you want to sort all these records based on the name of the student in alphabetical order.

Below are the steps to sort this text data in alphabetical order:

1. Select the entire dataset
2. Click the Data tab
3. Click the Sort icon. This will open the Sort dialog box.
4. In the Sort dialog box, make sure my data has headers is selected. In case your data doesn’t have headers, you can uncheck this.
5. In the ‘Sort by’ drop-down, select ‘Name’
6. In the ‘Sort On’ drop-down, make sure ‘Cell Values’ is selected
7. In the Order drop-down, select A-Z
8. Click OK.

The above steps would sort the entire dataset and give the result as shown below.

Why not just use the buttons in the ribbon?

The above method of sorting data in Excel may look like a lot of steps, as compared to just clicking the sort icon in the ribbon.

And this is true.

The above method is longer, but there is no chance of any error.

When you use the sort buttons in the ribbon, there are a few things that can go wrong (and this could be hard to spot when you have a large data set.

While I discuss the drawbacks of using the buttons later in this tutorial, let me quickly show you what can go wrong.

In the below example, since Excel cannot recognize that there is a header row, it sorts the entire dataset, including the header.

This issue is avoided with the sort dialog box as it explicitly gives you the option to specify whether your data has headers or not.

Since using the Sort dialog box eliminates chances of errors, I recommend you use it instead of all the other sorting methods in Excel

Sorting by Numbers

Now, I am assuming you have already gotten a hang of how text sorting works (covered above this section).

The other types of sorting (such as based on numbers or dates or color) is going to use almost the same steps with minor variations.

Suppose you have a dataset as shown below and you want to sort this data based on the marks scored by each student.

Below are the steps to sort this data based on numbers:

1. Select the entire dataset
2. Click the Data tab
3. Click the Sort icon. This will open the Sort dialog box.
4. In the Sort dialog box, make sure my data has headers is selected. In case your data doesn’t have headers, you can uncheck this.
5. In the ‘Sort by’ drop-down, select ‘Name’
6. In the ‘Sort On’ drop-down, make sure ‘Cell Values’ is selected
7. In the Order drop-down, select ‘Largest to Smallest’
8. Click OK.

The above steps would sort the entire dataset and give the result as shown below.

Sorting by Date/Time

While the date and time may look different, they are nothing but numbers.

For example, in Excel, the number 44196 would be the date value for 31 December 2020. You can format this number to look like a date, but in the backend in Excel, it still remains a number.

This also allows you to treat dates as numbers. So you can add 10 to a cell with date, and it will give you the number for the date 10 days later.

And the same goes for the time in Excel.

For example, the number 44196.125 represents 3 AM on 31st December 2020. While the integer part of the number represents a full day, the decimal part would give you the time.

And since both date and time are numbers, you can sort these like numbers.

Suppose you have a dataset as shown below and you want to sort this data based on the project submission date.

Below are the steps to sort this data based on the dates:

1. Select the entire dataset
2. Click the Data tab
3. Click the Sort icon. This will open the Sort dialog box.
4. In the Sort dialog box, make sure my data has headers is selected. In case your data doesn’t have headers, you can uncheck this.
5. In the ‘Sort by’ drop-down, select ‘Submission Date’
6. In the ‘Sort On’ drop-down, make sure ‘Cell Values’ is selected
7. In the Order drop-down, select ‘Oldest to Newest’
8. Click OK.

The above steps would sort the entire dataset and give the result as shown below.

Note that while date and time are numbers, Excel still recognized that these are different in the way it’s displayed. So when you sort by date, it shows ‘Oldest to Newest’ and ‘Newest to Oldest’ sorting criteria, but when you use numbers, it shows ‘Largest to Smallest’ or ‘Smallest to Largest’. Such small things that makes Excel an awesome spreadsheet tool (PS: Google Sheets doesn’t show so much detail, just the bland sort by A-Z or Z-A)

Sorting by Cell Color / Font Color

This option is amazing and I use it all the time (maybe a tad bit too much).

I often have data sets that I analyze manually and highlight cells while I am doing it. For example, I was going through a list of articles on this blog (which I have in an Excel sheet) and I highlighted the ones which I needed to improve.

And once I am done, I can quickly sort this data based on the cell colors. This helps me in getting all these highlighted cells/rows together at the top.

And to add to the awesomeness, you can sort based on multiple colors. So if I highlight cells with article names which need immediate attention in red and some which can be dealt with later with yellow, I can sort the data to show all the red rows first followed by the yellow.

If you’re interested in learning more, I recently wrote this article on sorting based on multiple colors. In this section, I will quickly show you how to sort based on one color only

Suppose you have a dataset as shown below and you want to sort by color and get all the red cells at the top.

Below are the steps to sort by color:

1. Select the entire dataset
2. Click the Data tab
3. Click the Sort icon. This will open the Sort dialog box.
4. In the Sort dialog box, make sure my data has headers is selected. In case your data doesn’t have headers, you can uncheck this.
5. In the ‘Sort by’ drop-down, select ‘Submission Date’ (or whatever column where you have the colored cells).Since in this example we have colored cells in all the columns, you can choose any.
6. In the ‘Sort On’ drop-down, select ‘Cell Color’.
7. In the Order drop-down, select the color with which you want to sort. In case you have multiple cell colors in the dataset, it will show you all those colors here
8. In the last drop-down, select ‘On Top’. This is where you specify whether you want the colored cells to be on the top of the dataset or at the bottom.
9. Click OK.

The above steps would sort your dataset by color and you will get the result as shown below.

Just as we have sorted this data based on the cell color, you can also do it based on the font color and conditional formatting icon.

Multiple Level Data Sorting

In reality, datasets are rarely as simple as the one that I am using in this tutorial.

Yours may extend to thousands of rows and hundreds of columns.

And when you have datasets so big, there is also a need for more data slice and dice. Multiple level data sorting is one of the things you may need when you have a large data set.

Multiple level data sorting means that you can sort the dataset based on values in one column and then sort it again based on values in another column(s).

For example, suppose you have the dataset as shown below and you want to sort this data based on two criteria:

1. The region
2. The sales

The output of this sorting based on the above two criteria will give you a dataset as shown below.

In the above example, we have the data first sorted by the regions and then within each region, the data is further sorted by the sales value.

This quickly allows us to see which sales reps are doing great in each region or which ones are doing poorly.

Below are the steps to sort the data based on multiple columns:

1. Select the entire data set that you want to sort.
2. Click the Data tab.
3. Click on the Sort Icon (the one shown below). This will open the Sort dialog box.
4. In the Sort dialog box, make sure my data has headers is selected. In case your data doesn’t have headers, you can uncheck this.
5. In the Sort Dialogue box, make the following selections
   • Sort by (Column): Region (this is the first level of sorting)
   • Sort On: Cell Values
   • Order: A to Z
6. Click on Add Level (this will add another level of sorting options).
7. In the second level of sorting, make the following selections:
   • Then by (Column): Sales
   • Sort On: Values
   • Order: Largest to Smallest
8. Click OK

Pro Tip: The Sort dialog box has a feature to ‘Copy Level’. This quickly copies the selected sorting level and then you can easily modify it. It’s good to know feature and may end up saving you time in case you have to sort based on multiple columns.

Below is a video where I show how to do a multi-level sorting in Excel:

Sorting Based on a Custom List

While Excel already has some common sorting criteria (such as sorting alphabetically with text, smallest to largest or largest to smallest with numbers, oldest to newest or newest to oldest with dates), it may not be enough.

To give you an example, suppose I have the following dataset:

Now, if I sort it based on the region alphabetically, I have two options – A to Z or Z to A. Below is what I get when I sort this data alphabetically from A to Z using the region column.

But what if I want this sort order to be East, West, North, South?

You, of course, can rearrange the data after sorting, but that’s not the efficient way to do this.

The right way to do this would be using custom lists.

A custom list is a list that Excel allows you to create and then use just like the inbuilt lists (such as month names or weekday names). Once you have created a custom list, you can use it in features such as data sorting or fill handle.

Some example where custom lists can be useful include:

• Sorting the data based on region/city name
• Sorting based on T-shirt sizes – Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large
• Sorting based on survey responses – Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree
• Sorting based on probability – high, medium, low

The first step in trying to sort based on the custom criteria is to create the custom list.

Steps to create a custom list in Excel:

1. Click the File tab
2. Click on Options
3. In the Excel Options Dialogue Box, select ‘Advanced’ from the list in the left pane.
4. Within Advanced selected, scroll down and select ‘Edit Custom List’.
5. In the Custom Lists dialogue box, type your criteria in the box titled List Entries. Type your criteria separated by comma (East, West, North, South) [you can also import your criteria if you have it listed].
6. Click Add
7. Click OK

Once you have completed the above steps, Excel will create and store a custom list that you can use for sorting data.

Note that the order of the items in the custom list is what determines how your list will be sorted.

When you create a custom list in one Excel workbook, it becomes available to all the workbooks in your system. So you only have to create it once and can reuse it in al workbooks.

Steps to sort using a custom list

Suppose you have the dataset as shown below and you want to sort it based on the regions (the sort order being East, West, North, and South)

Since we have already created a custom list, we can use it to sort our data.

Here are the steps to sort a dataset using a custom list:

1. Select the entire dataset
2. Click the Data tab
3. Click the Sort icon. This will open the Sort dialog box.
4. In the Sort dialog box, make sure my data has headers is selected. In case your data doesn’t have headers, you can uncheck this.
5. In the ‘Sort by’ drop-down, select ‘Region’ (or whatever column where you have the colored cells)
6. In the ‘Sort On’ drop-down, select ‘Cell Values’.
7. In the Order drop-down, select ‘Custom List’. As soon as you click on it, it will open the Custom Lists dialog box.
8. In the Custom Lists dialog box, select the custom list you have already created from the left pane.
9. Click OK. Once you do this, you will see the custom sort criteria in the sort order drop-down field
10. Click OK.

The above steps will sort your dataset based on the custom sort criteria.

Note: You don’t have to create a custom list before-hand to sort the data based on it. You can also create it while you’re in the Sort dialog box. When you click on Custom List (in step 7 above), it opens the custom list dialog box. You can create a custom list there as well.

Custom lists are not case sensitive. In case you want to do a case-sensitive sorting, refer to this example.

Also read: How to Sort by Length in Excel? Easy Formulas!

Sorting from Left to Right

While in most cases you’ll likely sort based on the column values, sometimes, you may also have a need to sort based on the row values.

For example, in the below dataset, I want to sort it based on the values in the Region row.

Although this type of data structure is not as common as the columnar data, I have still seen a lot of people working with this kind of construct.

Excel has an in-built functionality that allows you to sort from left to right.

Below are the steps to sort this data from left to right:

1. Select the entire dataset (except the headers)
2. Click the Data tab
3. Click the Sort icon. This will open the Sort dialog box.
4. In the Sort dialog box, click on Options.
5. In the Sort Options dialog box, select ‘Sort left to right’
6. Click OK.
7. In the ‘Sort By’ drop-down, select Row 1. By doing this, we are specifying that the sort needs to be done based on the values in Row 1
8. In the ‘Sort On’ drop-down, select ‘Cell Values’.
9. In the Order drop-down, select A-Z (you can also use custom sort list if you want)
10. Click OK.

The above steps would sort the data left to right based on Row 1 values.

Excel doesn’t recognize (or even allow you to specify) the headers when sorting from left to right. So you need to make sure your header cells are not selected when sorting the data. If you select headers cells as well, these will be sorted based on the value in it.

Note: Another way of sorting the data from right to left could be to transpose the data and get it in a columnar form. Once you have it, you can use any of the sorting methods covered so far. Once the sorting is done, you can then copy the resulting data and paste it as transposed data.

Below is a video where I show how to sort data from left to right in Excel

Case Sensitive Sorting in Excel

So far, in all the example above, the sorting has been case independent.

But what if you want to make the sorting case-sensitive.

Thankfully, Excel allows you to specify whether you want the sorting to be case-sensitive or not.

Note: While most of the times you don’t need to worry about case-sensitive sorting, this may be helpful when you get your data from a database such as Salesforce or you manually collate the data and have different people enter the same text in different cases. Having a case sensitive sort may help you keep all the records by the same person/database together.

Suppose you have a dataset as shown below and you want to sort this data based on the region column:

Below are the steps to sort data alphabetically as well as make it case sensitive:

1. Select the entire dataset
2. Click the Data tab
3. Click the Sort icon. This will open the Sort dialog box.
4. In the Sort dialog box, make sure my data has headers is selected. In case your data doesn’t have headers, you can uncheck this.
5. Click the Options button
6. In the Sort Options dialog box, check the ‘Case sensitive’ option
7. Click OK.
8. In the ‘Sort by’ drop-down, select ‘Region’
9. In the ‘Sort On’ drop-down, select ‘Cell Values’.
10. In the order drop-down, select A to Z
11. Click OK.

The above steps would not only sort the data alphabetically based on the region, but also make it case-sensitive.

You’ll get the resulting data as shown below:

When you sort from A to Z, lower case text is placed above the upper case text.

Getting the Original Sort Order

Often when sorting data in Excel, you may want to go back to the earlier or the original sort order and start afresh,

While you can use the undo functionality in Excel (using Control Z) to go back one step at a time, it may be confusing if you have already done multiple things after sorting the data.

Also, undo works only till you have the workbook open, but when you save and close and it and open it later, you won’t be able to go back to the original sort order.

Here are two simple ways to make sure you don’t lose the original sort order and get it back even after sorting the data:

1. Make a copy of the original dataset. This is something I recommend you do even if you don’t need the original sort order. You can have a workbook with all the data and then simply create a copy of the workbook and work on the copy. When I am working on critical datasets, I make a copy every day (with the date or version number as a part of the workbook name).
2. Add a column with a series of number. This series of numbers get all mixed up when you sort the data, but in case you want to go back to the original data, you can sort based in this series of numbers.

In this section, let me quickly show you what mean by adding a series and using it to get original sort order back.

Suppose you have a dataset as shown below:

To make sure you have a way to get back this data after sorting it, add a helper column and have a series of numbers in it (as shown below).

Here is a tutorial with different ways to add a column with numbers quickly

When you have the helper column in place, make sure you include it while sorting this dataset.

Suppose I sort this data based on the region and end up getting the data as shown below:

Now, if I want to go back to the original dataset, I can simply sort this data again, but based on the helper column (from low to high).

Simple.. isn’t it?

In case you don’t want the helper column to show, you can either hide it or create a backup and then delete it.

Some Common Issues While Sorting Data in Excel

At the beginning of this article, I showed you different ways to sort data in Excel (including sort buttons in the ribbon, right-click options, filter option, and the sort dialog box).

And to reiterate, using the sort dialog box minimizes the chances or any issues or error that may arise.

Now, let me show you what can go wrong when you use the sort button from the ribbon (the ones shown below)

Not Identifying the Column Headers

Suppose you have a dataset as shown below:

This looks like a decently formatted data set with headers clearly formatted with cell color and bold font.

So when you sort this data based on the names (using the sort buttons in the ribbon), you would expect the header to remain at the top and rest of the data to get sorted.

But what happens when you do it – the header is also considered as normal data and gets sorted (as shown below).

While Excel is smart enough to recognize headers, in this example, it failed to do so. When using the sort icon buttons in the ribbon, there was no way for you to manually specify that this data has headers.

Note: This issue occurs when I have the dataset and I add and format the headers and sort it. Normally, Excel would be smart enough to identify that there are headers in a dataset (especially when the data type of the header and the data in the column is different). But in this case, it failed to do so when I added the header and sorted right away. If I save this workbook, close it and reopen it, Excel somehow manages to identify the first row and header.

While this may not be an issue in most cases, there is still a chance when you use the sort icons in the ribbon, Using a dialog box eliminates this issue as you can specify that you have headers.

Not Identifying Blank Rows/Columns

This sorting issue is a little more complex – and a lot more common than you would imagine.

Suppose you have a dataset as shown below. Note that row number 6 is hidden (and it’s a blank row).

Now, if I select any cell in the first four rows of the data (the ones above the hidden blank row) and sort this data using the sort icon buttons, it would only sort the first four records on the data set (row 2 to 5). Similarly, if I select any cell in the dataset below the hidden blank row, it will only sort the last seven rows.

And unless you’re looking for it specifically, you’re likely to miss this horrible error.

How to make sure you don’t end up making this sorting error?

To make sure you don’t fall prey to this issue, you need to check your dataset before sorting it.

Select the entire dataset before sorting the data.

You can do that by selecting any cell in the dataset and then using the keyboard shortcut – Control + A.

If there are blank rows/columns in your dataset, the entire dataset won’t get selected. You can identify this by quickly scanning the outline of the selection.

If you see that there is some data left outside the selection, you can manually select it.

To make sure this issue is avoided, it’s best to first unhide all hidden rows and columns and then proceed to sort the data by selecting the entire data set or by first deleting the blank rows.

Partial Sorting (Based on the Last Name)

Sometimes, you may have a dataset that you want to sort based on part of the text.

For example, suppose I have the dataset as shown below and I want to sort this data based on the last name.

To do this, I need to separate this data so that I have only the last names in one column. When I have it, I can use that column to sort the data.

Below is a formula that can give me the last name:

=RIGHT(B2,LEN(B2)-FIND(" ",B2))

This will give you a result as shown below.

Now you can use the Last Name column to sort this data.

Once done, you can delete the last name column or hide it.

Note that the above formula works when you have names that has first and last name only and have no double spaces in between. In case you have names data that is different, you will have to adjust the formula. You can also use Text to Column to quickly split the names based on space character as the delimiter.

This is just one example of sorting based on partial data. Other examples may include sorting based on cities in an address or employee ID based on department codes.

Also, in case the text based on which you need to sort is at the beginning of the text, you can use the normal sort feature only.

Other Sorting Examples (Using Formula and VBA)

So far in this tutorial, I have covered the examples where we have used the in-built sorting functionality in Excel.

Automatically Sorting Using a Formula

When you use the in-built sort functionality and then make any change in the data set, you need to sort it again. The sort functionality is not dynamic.

In case you want to get a dataset that sorts automatically whenever there is any change, you can use the formulas to do it.

Note that to do this, you need to keep the original dataset and the sorted dataset separate (as shown below)

I have a detailed tutorial where I cover how to sort alphabetically using formulas. It shows two methods to do this – using helper columns and using an array formula.

Excel has also introduced the SORT dynamic array formula which can easily do this (without helper column or a complicated array formula). But since this is quite new, you may not have access to it in your version of Excel.

Sorting Using VBA

And finally, if you want to bypass all the sorting dialog box or other sorting options, you can use VBA to sort your data.

In the below example, I have a dataset that sorts the data when I double click on the column header. This makes it easy to sort and can be used in dashboards to make it more user-friendly.

Here is a detailed tutorial where I cover how to sort data using VBA and create something as shown above.

I have tried to cover a lot of examples to show you different ways you can sort data in Excel and all the things you need to keep in mind when doing it.

Hope you found this tutorial useful.

You May Also Like the following Excel Tutorials:

• Search and Highlight Data Using Conditional Formatting
• How to Sort Worksheets in Excel using VBA
• How to Create a Data Entry Form in Excel
• How to Compare Two Columns in Excel
• Excel TRIM Function to Remove Spaces and Clean Data
• Flip Data in Excel | Reverse Order of Data in Column/Row
• How to Shuffle a List of Items/Names in Excel? 2 Easy Formulas!

Sorting the data in Excel is a tool for presenting information in a user-friendly form. Numerical values can be sorted in ascending and descending order, text values can be sorted alphabetically and in reverse order. Available options are the sorting by color and font, in random order, according to several conditions. Columns and rows are sorted.



Sorting order in Excel

There are two ways to open the sort menu:

1. Right-click on the table. Select «Sort» and method «Largest to Smallest».



2. Open the «DATA» tab — «Sort» dialog box.

Frequently used sorting methods are represented by a single button on the «HOME» tab «Editing» section.

Sorting the table by a separate column:

1. For the program to perform the task correctly, select the required column in the data range.



2. Then we act in accordance with the task. If you want to perform simple sorting in ascending / descending order (alphabet or vice versa), just click the corresponding button on the taskbar. When the range contains more than one column, Excel opens a dialog box like:
   
   To maintain the correspondence of the values in the lines, we select the action «Expand the selection». Otherwise, only the selected column is sorted — the structure of the table is broken.

If you select the entire table and sort it, the first column is sorted. Data in the rows will be in accordance with the position of the values in the first column.



Sorting by the cell color and font

Excel provides rich formatting capabilities to the user. Therefore, it is possible to operate in different formats.

We will make the column «Total» and «fill» the cells with values in different shades in the training table. Perform the color sorting:

1. Select the column — the right mouse button — «Sort».



2. From the proposed list, select «Put Selected Cell Color On Top».



3. We agree to «Expand the selection». Result:

The program sorted cells by accents. The user can choose the order of the color sorting. For this purpose, in the list of tool options, select «Custom Sort».

In the window that opens, enter the required parameters:

Here you can choose the order of the representation the cells of different colors.

By the same principle, the font data is sorted.

Sorting by multiple columns in Excel

How to set the order of secondary sorting in Excel? To solve this problem, you need to set several sorting conditions.

1. Open the menu «Custom Sort». Assign the first criterion.



2. Click the button «Add Level».



3. There are windows for entering data for the next sorting condition. We fill them.

The program allows you to add several criteria at once to perform the sorting in a special order.

Sorting the rows in Excel

By default, the data is sorted by columns. How to sort by rows in Excel:

1. In the «Custom Sort» dialog box, click the «Options» button.



2. In the menu that opens, select «Range Columns».



3. Click OK. In the «Sort» window, fields for filling in the conditions for the rows appear.

Thus, the table is sorted into Excel by several parameters.

Random sorting in Excel

The built-in sorting options do not allow you to arrange data in a column randomly. This task will be handled by the function =RAND().

For example, you need to arrange a set of certain numbers in a random order.

We put the cursor in the next cell (left-right, not important). In the formula row, enter =RAND(). Press Enter. We copy the formula to the whole column — we get a set of random numbers.

Now sort the resulting column in ascending / descending order — the values in the original range will automatically be placed in random order.

Dynamic table sorting in Excel

If you apply standard sorting to the table, then when you change the data, it will not be relevant. You need to make sure that the values are sorted automatically. We use formulas.

1. There is a set of primes that need to be sorted in ascending order.



2. Put the cursor in the next cell and enter the formula: =SMALL(A:A,ROW(A1)). Exactly, as a range we specify the whole column. And as a coefficient there is the function of SMALL() ROW() with reference to the first cell.



3. Lets change the number in the initial range to 7 to 25 — «sorting» ascending will also change.

If it is necessary to make the dynamic sorting in descending order, use the =LARGE() function.

To sort the text values dynamically, you need the array formulas.

1. Initial data is a list of some names in any order. In our example it is a list of fruits.



2. Select the column and give it the name «fruits». To do this, in the field of names that is near the formula line, enter the name we need to assign it to the selected range of cells.



3. In the next cell (in the example — in B1), we write the formula:

   Since we have an array formula before us, press Ctrl + Shift + Enter. We multiply the formula by the whole column.



4. If lines are added to the original column, then we introduce a slightly modified formula:

Add the «pomelo» value to the «fruit» name range and check:

Download sorting data in excel using formulas

Subsequently, when you add data to the table, the sorting process will be performed automatically.

When you have large amounts of data, it can be overwhelming if it’s not sorted correctly in your workbook. Learn different methods to sort data in Excel to become more productive and to make your spreadsheets easier to manage.

Select Data to be Sorted

Before data can be sorted, Excel needs to know the exact range that is to be sorted. Excel will select areas of related data as long as the data meets these conditions:

• There are no blank rows or columns in an area of related data.
• Blank rows and columns are between areas of related data.

Excel determines if the data area has field names and excludes the row from the records to be sorted. Allowing Excel to select the range to be sorted can be risky, especially with large amounts of data that are hard to check.

To ensure that the correct data is selected, highlight the range before starting the sort. If the same range will be sorted repeatedly, the best approach is to give it a Name.

Sort Key and Sort Order in Excel

Sorting requires the use of a sort key and a sort order. The sort key is the data in the column or columns you want to sort and is identified by the column heading or field name. In the image below, the possible sort keys are Student ID, Name, Age, Program, and Month Started.

Sort Data Quickly

To do a quick sort, select a single cell in the column containing the sort key. Then choose how you want the data sorted. Here’s how:

1. Select a cell in the column containing the sort key.
2. Select Home.
3. Select Sort & Filter to open the drop-down menu of sort options.
4. Choose how you want to sort the data. Select either ascending or descending order.

When using Sort & Filter, the sort order options in the drop-down list change depending upon the type of data in the selected range. For text data, the options are Sort A to Z and Sort Z to A. For numeric data, the options are Sort Smallest to Largest and Sort Largest to Smallest.

Sort Multiple Columns of Data in Excel

In addition to performing a quick sort based on a single column of data, Excel’s custom sort feature allows you to sort on multiple columns by defining multiple sort keys. In multi-column sorts, the sort keys are identified by selecting the column headings in the Sort dialog box.

As with a quick sort, the sort keys are defined by identifying the columns headings or field names, in the table containing the sort key.

Sort on Multiple Columns Example

In the example below, the data in the range A2 to E12 is sorted on two columns of data. The data is first sorted by name and then by age.

To sort multiple columns of data:

1. Highlight the range of cells to be sorted. In this example, cells A2 to E12 are selected.
2. Select Home.
3. Select Sort & Filter to open the drop-down list.
4. Select Custom Sort to open the Sort dialog box.
5. Place a check next to My data has headers.
6. Under the Column heading, select the Sort by down arrow and choose Name from the drop-down list to first sort the data by the Name column.
7. Under the Sort On heading, leave the setting as Cell Values. The sort is based on the actual data in the table.
8. Under the Order heading, select the down arrow and choose Z to A to sort the Name data in descending order.
9. Select Add Level to add a second sort option.
10. Under the Column heading, select the Then by down arrow and choose Age to sort records with duplicate names by the Age column.
11. Under the Order heading, choose Largest to Smallest from the drop-down list to sort the Age data in descending order.
12. Select OK to close the dialog box and sort the data.

As a result of defining a second sort key, shown in the example below, the two records with identical values for the Name field are sorted in descending order using the Age field. This results in the record for the student Wilson J., age 21, being before the record for Wilson P., age 19.

The First Row: Column Headings or Data

The range of data selected for sorting in the example above included the column headings above the first row of data. This row contains data that is different from the data in subsequent rows. Excel determined that the first row contains the column headings and adjusted the available options in the Sort dialog box to include them.

Excel uses formatting to determine whether a row contains column headings. In the example above, the column headings are a different font from the data in the rest of the rows.

Excel uses this difference to make a determination on whether the first row is a heading row. If Excel makes a mistake, the Sort dialog box contains a My data has headers checkbox that overrides this automatic selection.

Sort Data by Date or Time in Excel

In addition to sorting text data alphabetically or numbers from largest to smallest, Excel’s sort options include sorting date values. Available sort orders available for dates include:

• Ascending order: Oldest to newest.
• Descending order: Newest to oldest.

Quick Sort vs. Sort Dialog Box

Dates and times that are formatted as number data, such as Date Borrowed in the example above, use the quick sort method to sort on a single column. For sorts involving multiple columns of dates or times, use the Sort dialog box in the same way as sorting multiple columns of number or text data.

Sort by Date Example

To perform a quick sort by date in ascending order, from oldest to newest:

1. Highlight the range of cells to be sorted. To follow the example above, highlight cells G2 to K7.
2. Select Home.
3. Select Sort & Filter to open the drop-down list.
4. Select Custom Sort to open the Sort dialog box.
5. Under the Column heading, select the Sort by down arrow and choose Borrowed to first sort the data by the borrowed date.
6. Under the Sort On heading, choose Cell Values. The sort is based on the actual data in the table.
7. Under the Sort Order heading, choose Oldest to Newest from the drop-down list.
8. Select OK in the dialog box to close the dialog box and sort the data.

Mixed Data and Quick Sorts

When using the quick sort method, if records containing text and number data are mixed together, Excel sorts the number and text data separately by placing the records with text data at the bottom of the sorted list.

Possible Sort Warning

If the Sort dialog box is used, even for sorts on one column, Excel may display a message warning you that it has encountered data stored as text and gives you the choice to:

• Sort anything that looks like a number as a number.
• Sort numbers and numbers stored as text separately.

If you choose the first option, Excel attempts to place the text data in the correct location of the sort results. Choose the second option and Excel places the records containing text data at the bottom of the sort results, just as it does with quick sorts.

Sort Data by Days of the Week or by Months in Excel

You can also sort data by days of the week or by months of the year using the same built-in custom list that Excel uses to add days or months to a worksheet using the fill handle. These lists allow sorting by days or months chronologically rather than in alphabetical order.

As with other sort options, sorting values by a custom list can be displayed in ascending (Sunday to Saturday or January to December) or descending order (Saturday to Sunday or December to January).

In the image above, the following steps were followed to sort the data sample in the range A2 to E12 by months of the year:

1. Highlight the range of cells to be sorted.
2. Select Home.
3. Select Sort & Filter to open the drop-down list.
4. Select Custom Sort to open the Sort dialog box.
5. Under the Column heading, choose Month Start from the drop-down list to sort the data by the months of the year.
6. Under the Sort On heading, select Cell Values. The sort is based on the actual data in the table.
7. Under the Order heading, select the down arrow next to the default A to Z option to open the drop-down menu.
8. Choose Custom List to open the Custom Lists dialog box.
9. In the left-hand window of the dialog box, select January, February, March, April.
10. Select OK to confirm the selection and return to the Sort the dialog box.
11. The chosen list (January, February, March, April) displays under the Order heading.
12.  Select OK to close the dialog box and sort the data by months of the year.

By default, custom lists are displayed only in ascending order in the Custom Lists dialog box. To sort data in descending order using a custom list after having selected the desired list so that it is displayed under the Order heading in the Sort dialog box:

1. Select the down arrow next to the displayed list, such as January, February, March, April to open the drop-down menu.
2. In the menu, select the custom list option that is displayed in descending order, such as December, November, October, September.
3. Click OK to sort the data in descending order using the custom list.

Sort by Rows to Reorder Columns in Excel

As shown with the previous sort options, data is normally sorted using column headings or field names. The result is the reordering of entire rows or records of data. A less known, and therefore, less used sort option in Excel is to sort by row, which has the effect of rearranging the order of columns left to right in a worksheet.

Customize the Column Order

Very seldom, however, is getting the columns in the correct order a straightforward task due to the limitations of the ascending and descending sort order options for values. Usually, it is necessary to use a custom sort order, and Excel includes options for sorting by cell or font color or by conditional formatting icons.

The easiest way of telling Excel the order of columns is to add a row above or below the data table containing numbers that indicate the order of columns from left to right. Sorting by rows then becomes a simple matter of sorting the columns smallest to largest by the row containing the numbers.

Once the sort is done, the added row of numbers can easily be deleted.

Sort by Rows Example

In the data sample used for this series on Excel sort options, the Student ID column has always been first on the left, followed by Name and then Age.

In this instance, as shown in the image above, numbers have been added to the columns to prepare the worksheet to reorder the columns so that the Program column is first on the left followed by Month Start, ​Name, Age, and Student ID.

Here’s how to change the column order:

1. Insert a blank row above the row containing the field names.
2. In this new row, enter the following numbers left to right starting in column A: 5, 3, 4, 1, 2.
3. Highlight the range to be sorted. In this example, highlight A2 to E13.
4. Select Home.
5. Select Sort & Filter to open the drop-down list.
6. Select Custom Sort to open the Sort dialog box.
7. Select Options to open the Sort Options dialog box.
8. In the Orientation section, select Sort left to right to sort the order of columns left to right in the worksheet.
9. Select OK to close the Sort Options dialog box.
10. With the change in Orientation, the Column heading in the Sort dialog box changes to Row.
11. Select the Sort by down arrow and choose Row 2. This is the row containing the custom numbers.
12. Under the Sort On heading, choose Cell Values.
13. Under the Order heading, choose Smallest to Largest from the drop-down list to sort the numbers in row 2 in ascending order.
14. Select OK to close the dialog box and sort the columns left to right by the numbers in row 2.
15. The order of columns begins with Program followed by Month Start, Name, Age, and Student ID.

Use Excel’s Custom Sort Options to Reorder Columns

While custom sorts are available in the Sort dialog box in Excel, these options are not easy to use when it comes to reordering columns in a worksheet. Options for creating a custom sort order available in the Sort dialog box are to sort the data by cell color, font color, and icon.

Unless each column has already had unique formatting applied, such as different font or cell colors, that formatting needs to be added to individual cells in the same row for each column to be reordered.

For example, to use font color to reorder the columns:

1. Select each field name and change the font color for each. For example, change Program to red, Month Start to green, Name to blue, Age to orange, and Student ID to purple.
2. In the Sort dialog box, select Sort by and choose Row 2.
3. Under the Sort on heading, choose Font Color.
4. Under the Order heading, manually set the order of field names colors to match the desired column order.
5. After sorting, reset the font color for each field name.

When it comes to Excel, here’s a good rule to live by: If you find yourself doing something manually, there’s probably an easier way.

Whether you’re trying to remove duplicates, do simple calculations, or sort your data, you can almost always find a workaround that’ll help you get it done with just a click (or two) of a button.

But if you’re not a power user, it’s easy to overlook these shortcuts. And before you know it, something as simple as organizing a list of names in alphabetical order can suck up a ton of your time.

Luckily, there is a workaround for that. In fact, there are a few different ways to use Excel’s sorting feature that you may not know about. Let’s check them out below, starting with the basics.

For this first set of instructions, we’ll be using Microsoft Excel 2017 for Mac. But don’t worry — while the location of certain buttons might be different, the icons and selections you have to make are the same across most earlier versions of Excel.

1. Highlight the rows and/or columns you want sorted.

To sort a range of cells in Excel, first click and drag your cursor across your spreadsheet to highlight all of the cells you want to sort — even those rows and columns whose values you’re not actually sorting by.

For example, if you want to sort column A, but there’s data associated with column A in columns B and C, it’s important to highlight all three columns to ensure the values in Columns B and C move along with the cells you’re sorting in Column A.

In the screenshot below, we’re going to sort this sheet by the last name of Harry Potter characters. But the first name and house of each person needs to go with each last name that gets sorted, or each column will become mismatched when we finish sorting.

2. Navigate to ‘Data’ along the top and select ‘Sort.’

Once all the data you want to sort is highlighted, select the «Data» tab along the top navigation bar (you can see this button on the top-right of the screenshot in the first step, above). This tab will expand a new set of options beneath it, where you can select the «Sort» button. The icon has an «A-Z» graphic on it, as you can see below, but you’ll be able to sort in more ways than just alphabetically.

3. If sorting by column, select the column you want to order your sheet by.

When you hit the «Sort» button, shown above, a window of settings will appear. This is where you can configure what you’d like sorted and how you’d like to sort it.

If you’re sorting by a specific column, click «Column» — the leftmost dropdown menu, shown below — and select the column whose values you want to be your sorting criteria. In our case, it’ll be «Last Name.»

4. If sorting by row, click ‘Options’ and select ‘Sort left to right.’

If you’d rather sort by a specific row, rather than a column, click «Options» on the bottom of the window and select «Sort left to right.» Once you do this, the Sort settings window will reset and ask you to choose the specific «Row» you’d like to sort by in the leftmost dropdown (where it currently says «Column»).

This sorting system doesn’t quite make sense for our example, so we’ll stick with sorting by the «Last Name» column.

5. Choose what you’d like sorted.

You don’t just have to sort by the value of each cell. In the middle column of your Sort settings window, you’ll see a dropdown menu called «Sort On.» Click it, and you can choose to sort your sheet by different characteristics of each cell in the column/row you’re sorting by. These options include cell color, font color, or any icon included in the cell.

6. Choose how you’d like to order your sheet.

In the third section of your Sort settings’ window, you’ll see a dropdown bar called «Order.» Click it to select how you’d like to order your spreadsheet.

By default, your Sort settings window will suggest sorting alphabetically (which we’ll show you shortcuts for in the next process below). But you can also sort from Z to A, as well as by a custom list. While you can create your own custom list, there are a few preset lists you can sort your data by right away. We’ll talk more about how and why you might sort by custom list in a few minutes.

To Sort by Number

If your spreadsheet includes a column of numbers, rather than letter-based values, you can also sort your sheet by these numbers. To do that, you’ll select this column in the leftmost «Columns» dropdown menu. This will change the options in the «Order» dropdown bar so that you can sort from «Smallest to Largest» or «Largest to Smallest.»

7. Click ‘OK.’

Click «OK,» in your Sort settings window, and you should see your list successfully sorted according to your desired criteria. Here’s what our Harry Potter list now looks like, organized by last name in alphabetical order:

Sometimes you may have a list of data that has no organization whatsoever. Maybe you exported a list of your marketing contacts or blog posts. Whatever the case may be, you might want to start by alphabetizing the list — and there’s an easy way to do this that doesn’t require you to follow each step outlined above.

To Alphabetize on a Mac

1. Select a cell in the column you want to sort.
2. Click on the «Data» tab in your toolbar and look for the «Sort» option on the left.
3. If the «A» is on top of the «Z,» you can just click on that button once. If the «Z» is on top of the «A,» click on the button twice. Note: When the «A» is on top of the «Z,» that means your list will be sorted in alphabetical order. However, when the «Z» is on top of the «A,» that means your list will be sorted in reverse alphabetical order.

To Alphabetize on a PC

1. Select a cell in the column you want to sort.
2. Click on the «Data» tab in your toolbar. You will see Sort options in the middle.
3. Click on the icon above the word «Sort.» A pop-up will appear: If you have headers, make sure «My list has headers» is checked. If it is, click «Cancel.»
4. Click on the button that has the «A» on top and the «Z» on the bottom with an arrow pointing down. That will sort your list alphabetically from «A» to «Z.» If you want to sort your list in reverse alphabetical order, click on the button that has the «Z» on top and the «A» on the bottom.

Sorting Multiple Columns

Sometimes you don’t just want to sort one column, but you want to sort two. Let’s say you want to organize all of your blog posts that you have in a list by the month they were published. First, you’d want to organize them by date, and then by the blog post title or URL.

In this example, I want to sort my list first by house, and then by last name. This would give me a list organized by each house, but also alphabetized within each house.

To Sort Multiple Columns on a Mac

1. Click on the data in the column you want to sort.
2. Click on the «Data» tab in your toolbar and look for the «Sort» option on the left.
3. Click on the small arrow to the left of the «A to Z» Sort icon. Then, select «Custom Sort» from the menu.
4. A pop-up will appear: If you have headers, make sure «My list has headers» is checked.
5. You will see five columns. Under «Column» select the first column you want to sort from the dropdown menu. (In this case, it is «House.»)
6. Then, click on the «+» sign at the bottom left of the pop-up. Under where it says «Column,» select «Last Name» from the dropdown.
7. Check the «Order» column to make sure it says A to Z. Then click «OK.»
8. Marvel at your beautiful organized list.

To Sort Multiple Columns on a PC

1. Click on the data in the column you want to sort.
2. Click on the «Data» tab in your toolbar. You will see «Sort» options in the middle.
3. Click on the icon above the word «Sort.» You will see a pop-up appear. Make sure «My data has headers» is checked if you have column headers.
4. You will see three columns. Under «Column» select the first column you want to sort from the dropdown menu. (In this case, it is «House.»)
5. Then click on «Add Level» at the top left of the pop-up. Under where it says «Column» select «Last Name» from the dropdown.
6. Check the «Order» column to make sure it says A to Z. Then click «OK.»
7. Marvel at your beautiful organized list.

Sorting in Custom Order

Sometimes you don’t want to sort by A to Z or Z to A. Sometimes you want to sort by something else, such as months, days of the week, or some other organizational system.

In situations like this, you can create your own custom order to specify exactly the order you want the sort. (It follows a similar path to multiple columns but is slightly different.)

Let’s say we have everyone’s birthday month at Hogwarts, and we want everyone to be sorted first by Birthday Month, then by House, and then by Last Name.

To Sort in Custom Order on a Mac

1. Click on the data in the column you want to sort.
2. Click on the «Data» tab in your toolbar. You will see «Sort» all the way to the left.
3. Click on the small arrow to the left of the «A to Z» Sort icon. Then, select «Custom Sort» from the menu.
4. A pop-up will appear: If you have headers, make sure «My list has headers» is checked.
5. You will see five columns. Under «Column,» select the first column in your spreadsheet you want to sort from the dropdown menu. In this case, it is «Birthday Month.»
6. Under the «Order» column, click on the dropdown next to «A to Z.» Select the option for «Custom List.»
7. You will see a couple of options (month and day). Select the month list where the months are spelled out, as that matches the data. Click «OK.»
8. Then click on the «+» sign at the bottom left of the pop-up. Under «Column,» select «House» from the dropdown.
9. Click on the «+» sign at the bottom left again. Under «Column,» select «Last Name» from the dropdown.
10. Check the «Order» column to make sure «House» and «Last Name» say A to Z. Then click «OK.»
11. Marvel at your beautiful organized list.

To Sort in Custom Order on a PC

1. Click on the data in the column you want to sort.
2. Click on the «Data» tab in your toolbar. You will see «Sort» options in the middle.
3. Click on the icon above the word «Sort.» You will see a pop-up appear: If you have headers, make sure «My list has headers» is checked.
4. You will see three columns. Under «Column,» select the first column you want to sort from the dropdown. In this case, it is «Birthday Month.»
5. Under the «Order» column, click on the dropdown next to «A to Z.» Select the option for «Custom List.»
6. You will see a couple of options (month and day), as well as the option to create your own custom order. Select the month list where the months are spelled out, as that matches the data. Click «OK.»
7. Then, click on «Add Level» at the top left of the pop-up. Under «Column,» select «House» from the dropdown.
8. Click on the «Add Level» button at the top left of the pop-up again. Under «Column,» select «Last Name» from the dropdown.
9. Check the «Order» column to make sure «House» and «Last Name» say A to Z. Then click «OK.»
10. Marvel at your beautiful organized list.

Sorting a Row

Sometimes your data may appear in rows instead of columns. When that happens you are still able to sort your data with a slightly different step.

To Sort a Row on a Mac

1. Click on the data in the row you want to sort.
2. Click on the «Data» tab in your toolbar. You will see «Sort» all the way to the left.
3. Click on the small arrow to the left of the «A to Z» Sort icon. Then, select «Custom Sort» from the menu.
4. A pop-up will appear: Click on «Options» at the bottom.
5. Under «Orientation» select «Sort left to right.» Then, click «OK.»
6. You will see five columns. Under «Row,» select the row number that you want to sort from the dropdown. (In this case, it is Row 1.) When you are done, click «OK.»

To Sort a Row on a PC

1. Click on the data in the row you want to sort.
2. Click on the «Data» tab in your toolbar. You will see «Sort» options in the middle.
3. Click on the icon above the word «Sort.» You will see a pop-up appear.
4. Click on «Options» at the bottom.
5. Under «Orientation» select «Sort left to right.» Then, click «OK.»
6. You will see three columns. Under «Row,» select the row number that you want to sort from the dropdown. (In this case, it is Row 1.) When you are done, click «OK.»

Sort Your Conditional Formatting

If you use conditional formatting to change the color of a cell, add an icon, or change the color of a font, you can actually sort by that, too.

In the example below, I’ve used colors to signify different grade ranges: If they have a 90 or above, the cell appears green. Between 80-90 is yellow. Below 80 is red. Here’s how you’d sort that information to put the top performers at the top of the list. I want to sort this information so that the top performers are at the top of the list.

To Sort Conditional Formatting on a Mac

1. Click on the data in the row you want to sort.
2. Click on the «Data» tab in your toolbar. You will see «Sort» all the way to the left.
3. Click on the small arrow to the left of the «A to Z» Sort icon. Then, select «Custom Sort» from the menu.
4. A pop-up will appear: If you have headers, make sure «My list has headers» is checked.
5. You will see five columns. Under «Column,» select the first column you want to sort from the dropdown. In this case, it is «Grades.»
6. Under the column that says «Sort On,» select «Cell Color».
7. In the last column that says «Color/Icon,» select the green bar.
8. Then click on the «+» sign at the bottom left of the pop-up. Repeat steps 5-6. Instead of selecting green under «Color/Icon,» select the yellow bar.
9. Then click on the «+» sign at the bottom left of the pop-up. Repeat steps 5-6. Instead of selecting green under «Color/Icon,» select the red bar.
10. Click «OK.»

To Sort Conditional Formatting on a PC

1. Click on the data in the row you want to sort.
2. Click on the «Data» tab in your toolbar. You will see «Sort» options in the middle.
3. Click on the icon above the word «Sort.» A pop-up will appear: If you have headers, make sure «My list has headers» is checked.
4. You will see three columns. Under «Column» select the first column you want to sort from the dropdown. In this case, it is «Grades.»
5. Under the column that says «Sort On,» select «Cell Color».
6. In the last column that says «Order,» select the green bar.
7. Click on «Add Level.» Repeat steps 4-5. Instead of selecting green under «Order,» select the yellow bar.
8. Click on «Add Level» again. Repeat steps 4-5. Instead of selecting yellow under «Order,» select the red bar.
9. Click «OK.»

There you have it — all the possible ways to sort in Excel. Ready to sort your next spreadsheet? Start by grabbing nine different Excel templates below, then use Excel’s sorting function to organize your data as you see fit.