Sort Excel Spreadsheet on More than 3 Columns

[wandan]

Hi There,

Is there an easy way to sort an Excel 2003 spreadsheet by more than three columns available in Data>Sort?

Thanks.

 

[SkipVought]

Hi,

Do you remember IBM Cards or punch cards? There were 80 columns of data on each card, but you could only sort ONE COLUMN AT A TIME. So you sorted FROM the least significant column TO the most significant column. For instance, in order to sort a 5-digit ZIP code, took FIVE sorts.

Excel allows you to sort THREE columns at a time rather than only ONE. So if you have more than three. sort the least significant columns before you sort the most significant columns.

Skip,

_{Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE!}

 

[traycee]

Open your spreadsheet. In Excel 2007 you would click somewhere within your table. On the home tab click 'Sort and Filter' then 'custom sort'. Just keep adding levels. You can sort by many columns at a time. You do need to sort as mentioned above, most significant columns first.

 

[SkipVought]

t,

Is there an easy way to sort an Excel 2003...

Skip,

_{Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE!}

 

[xlhelp]

You can also try an old trick; to sort most significant column to least significant (say, B, A, C, E and D) - concatenate them in another column. That is,
=B2&A2&C2&E2&D2
and then sort the resulting column.

Once the sort is done delete the column.

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