how do I undo a sort

Question

I sorted a column and I want to revert to the original order I entered the data in.  How do I undo the sort?

Answer 1

There is no 'default order' for records in a Excel list. To restore a previous order you'd have to Undo everything done since sorting the records... Usually that isn't preferable :-) If there is no combination of fields inherent in the data which you can use to sort again to return the records to the order you prefer, you need to anticipate this when creating the list.

Include an additional field (column) in the data range so you can assign a sequential 'record number' to each record as it's added to the list. That provides each record with a unique identifier which can later be used as a sort key to return the records to that order.

Regards,

Bob J.

Answer 2

I sorted a column and I want to revert to the original order I entered the data in.  How do I undo the sort?

If the usual Edit>Undo doesn't work, if you're using TimeMachine, your most recent backup may have the file containing the unsorted data, so you could then copy that old data from there.