excel 365 why won't the data in my worksheet sort correctly by date

Question

Greetings:

I cannot figure out WHY the sample spreadsheet shown below will not sort by date.

Answer 1

Could you create a stripped-down copy of the workbook demonstrating the problem (without sensitive information) and make it available through one of the websites that let you upload and share a file, such as OneDrive, Google Drive, FileDropper or DropBox. Then post a link to the uploaded and shared file here.

Answer 2

Can’t reproduce.

Here’s my file with your data in it:-

https://www.mediafire.com/file/hlj36d34s5mjnvm/excel_365_why_wont_the_data_in_my_worksheet_sort_correctly_by_date.xlsm/file

Download the file and open it clicking on:-

Enable Editing

 - if required / necessary.

1.

Highlight the range:-

A 2 to E 8

 - then:-

Data tab

Sort & Filter group

Click on:-

Sort

 - to open a window of the same name.

2.

Change the window called:-

Sort

 - to read:-

Column                            Sort On                  Order

Sort by DATE                 Cell Values            Oldest to Newest

 - then click:-

OK

3.

DATE column now shows dates in correct order.

Answer 3

I suspect the dates in the Dates column are not actually dates. Test this by selecting the dates, format the selected cells as General, click OK. If the dates appear as numbers around the 45000 mark then those are real Excel dates and should sort properly (undo to revert the formatting). If they still appear as eg. 12/12/2023 then those are strings and will need carefully converting to proper Excel dates.