Can this type of Sort be done in Excel

[silenttalk]

Hi

Hope someone has some ideas on this, coz im not sure it can be done.

I have a single column of names First then Second, I want to be able to preserve this and not go for second and first. But I want to do the sort on the last name, which I guess technically is going to be the first letter appearing after the space character.

Any ideas ??

 

[fneily]

No middle initials? How about two first names like Bobby Joe?

 

[SkipVought]

silenttalk,

The only sort that you can do with a single column of first and last name is to sort on first and last name.

However, if you parse first and last into separate columns, you can then sort by last and then first.

Is there ALWAYS a first name WITHOUT SPACES, NEVER a middle name or initial?

If so then first name is
[tt]
=LEFT(A1,FIND(" ",A1)-1)
[/tt]
last name is
[tt]
=RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-FIND(" ",A1))
[/tt]
where the first last name is in A1

Skip,

_{[red]Be advised:[/red] When transmitting sheet music...
If it ain't baroque, don't fax it!}

 

[silenttalk]

No there will be no middle initials at all, so the sort is burely done alphabetically on the first letter after the space

 

[silenttalk]

Also no to spaces in first name i would enter Bobby Joe as Bobby-Joe

 

[AnotherHiggins]

See Skip's post.

John

Every generalization is false, including this one.