Sort not working the way its supposed to.

Question

I have a spreadsheet with 8 columns and 1264 rows. I'm trying to do a simple sort on one of the columns. I pick a cell on the column I want to sort and run the ascending sort. But only the column that I choose gets sorted, all the other columns are the same as before the sort. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong as I followed the instructions in the help file.

Answer 1

Hi RichardPlecenik

Thanks for reaching out. My name is Ali. I'm an Independent Advisor and a Microsoft user like you. I'll be happy to help you out today.

If it looks like the data did not sort properly, refer to the following list of possible solutions:

• Make sure no hidden rows or columns exist.

• Use a single row for headers. If you need a multiline header, either wrap the text in the cell or use Alt+Enter to force line breaks in the cell.

• If the headers were sorted into the data, there was probably at least one column without a header.

• Column data should be of the same type. This may not be obvious in a column of ZIP codes where some (such as 57057) are numbers, but others that start with zero are actually text. To solve this problem, convert the entire column to text.

• If you’re sorting by a column containing a formula, Excel will recalculate the column after the sort. If the values change after the recalculation, such as with RAND, it may appear that the sort did not work properly, but it did.

• If a few of the columns contain table formats and others are not then this will also be the reason for not sorting other columns.

Please check the above issues in your data and let us know if you are still experiencing the problem.

For us to get a bigger picture of this issue and to provide you with a better solution, could you please provide a screenshot of your data where you need to perform the sorting (make sure to cover any private information before uploading it here as this is a public forum)

Thanks,

Ali

Answer 2

Hi,

Select the range of 8 columns by 1264 rows (including the header row) and now go to Data > Sort.  Select the column that you want to sort by and click on OK.

Hope this helps.