Sorting is one of the basic tasks in Excel. This guide will show you how to sort data in Excel so that you can work with it more effectively.
If you have a large amount of data in an Excel spreadsheet, you may find it helpful to sort that data in order to more easily find the information you are looking for. Sorting data in Excel is a relatively simple process and can be done by different methods. Sorted data will helps to reduce your execution time when you develop automation.
Know how to sort data using the Home Tab
You have a sort button in the excel home tab, which helps you to sort data in three steps.
- Select the entire range of your data, and make sure cell B1 is active
- Go to Home
- Select Sort & Filter button
- Choose the Sort Largest to Smallest
Know how to sort data using the Data Tab
The Data Tab is used to sort data in a specific order. This method will help you to sort your data by multiple levels. In the example, you sort data by Name and Sales.
Follow the below steps to sort data using the Data Tab
- Select the entire range of your data
- Go to Data
- Select the Sort button – to popup Sort dialog box
- Check the check box My data has headers
- Select the Customer field in the Sort by drop-down
- Select A to Z in the Order drop-down
- Press Add Level – to add the next column to sort
- Select the Sales field in the Then by drop-down
- Select A to Z in the Order drop-down
- Press OK
Know how to sort data using the Filter Toggles
This feature is incredibly useful if you want to quickly find a specific piece of information. It’s also great for organizing your data in a way that makes sense for you. So if you’re looking for a quick way to sort your data, be sure to check out the Filter Toggles feature.
Follow the below steps to sort data using the filter button
- Select the entire range of your data
- Go to Home
- Select Filter button – It will add a filter icon to your data header row
- Click the dropdown icon in cell B1, it will popup context menu
- Select Sort Largest to Smallest – There are other options Number, Sort by Color, etc… to sort your data.
Know how to sort data in Pivot Table
In this method first, you have to create a Pivot table for your data.
Follow the below steps to add a Pivot Table in excel and sort
- Select the entire data
- Go to Insert Menu
- Press Pivot Table – to open Pivot from table or range dialog box
- Make sure your data range is in the Table/Range, if not select the entire range
- Select the option Existing Worksheet
- Type E1 in the Location input box
- Press OK
You can see a blank pivot table is inserted in your excel sheet cell E1
- Drag the Customer field to the Rows area
- Drag the Sales field to the Values area
- Select any one cell in column F
- Click the Right mouse button to open the context menu
- Select Sort
- Select Sort Largest to Smallest
Know how to sort data in Table
You have one more option to sort data using a Table, it is exactly like sorting data using a Pivot Table.
Follow the below steps to sort data using Table
- Select the entire data
- Go to Insert Menu
- Press Table – to open Create Table dialog box
- Make sure your data range is in the Where is the data for your table? if not select the entire range
- Select the checkbox My table has headers
- Press OK
You can see the data range become an excel table with the dropdown icon in the data header.
- Click the dropdown icon in cell B1, it will popup context menu
- Select Sort Largest to Smallest – There are other options Number, Sort by Color, etc… to sort your data.
Conclusions
You have learned multiple options to sort data in excel. When working with the data, sorting is a crucial task.
It enables you to retrieve the data according to a column in either an ascending or descending order. Sorting helps the end user to read your data very quickly and derive insights from your data.
Use the Data Tab sorting method, If you have a number of columns and need to sort multiple columns.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
