Can I sort data without using the Sort dialog box?

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1 CHAPTER 24 Sorting in Excel Questions answered in this chapter: How can I sort sales transaction data so that transactions are sorted first by salesperson and then by product, by units sold, and in chronological order from oldest to most recent? I have always wanted to sort my data based on cell color or font color. Is this possible in Excel 2013? I love the great icon sets described in Chapter 23, Conditional formatting. Can I sort my data based on the icon in the cell? My worksheet includes a column containing the month in which each sale occurred. When I sort by this column, I get either April (first month alphabetically) or October (last month alphabetically) on top. How can I sort by this column so that the months are chronologically sorted, that is, January transactions on top, followed by February and the following months? Can I sort data without using the Sort dialog box? Almost every user of Microsoft Excel has at one time or another sorted columns of data alphabetically or by numerical value. Look at some examples of how powerful sorting is in Excel Answers to this chapter s questions This section provides the answers to the questions that are listed at the beginning of the chapter. How can I sort sales transaction data so that transactions are sorted first by salesperson and then by product, by units sold, and in chronological order from oldest to most recent? JAC is a small company that sells makeup. The Makeup worksheet in the Makeupsorttemp.xlsx file in the Templates folder for this chapter (see Figure 24-1) contains the following sales transaction information: Transaction number Name of salesperson Date of transaction Product sold 223

2 Units sold Dollars received Location of transaction FIGURE 24-1 This figure shows the sales transaction data before sorting. You want to sort the data so that: Transactions are listed alphabetically by salesperson. You want to sort in the usual A-to-Z order so that all of Ashley s transactions are first and all of Zaret s transactions are last. Each person s transactions are sorted alphabetically by product. Thus, Ashley s eyeliner transactions will be followed by Ashley s foundation transactions and so on. For each salesperson and product, transactions are listed by number of units sold (in descending order). If a salesperson makes two or more sales of the same product for the same number of units, transactions are listed in chronological order. In versions of Excel before Excel 2007, it was difficult to sort by more than three criteria. Now Excel enables you to apply up to 64 criteria in one sort. To sort the sales data, you need to select the data (cell range E3:K1894) first. Two easy ways to select these data are as follows: Position the cursor in the upper-left corner of the data (cell E3) and then press Ctrl+Shift+right arrow followed by Ctrl+Shift+down arrow. Position the cursor anywhere in the cell range and press Ctrl+Shift+*. 224 Chapter 24 Sorting in Excel

On the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, choose Sort to open the Sort dialog box shown in Figure 24-2. FIGURE 24-2 The Sort dialog box is not yet filled in.

Sort by the Name column so that values (this means cell contents) are in A-to-Z order. 2. Sort by the Product column so that values are in A-to-Z order. 3.

3 On the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, choose Sort to open the Sort dialog box shown in Figure FIGURE 24-2 The Sort dialog box is not yet filled in. Because row 3 contains headings for the data columns, select the My Data Has Headers check box. Select the following four criteria in the order shown: 1. Sort by the Name column so that values (this means cell contents) are in A-to-Z order. 2. Sort by the Product column so that values are in A-to-Z order. 3. Sort by the Units column so that values are in order from largest to smallest. 4. Sort by the Date column so that values are in chronological order from oldest to newest. The dialog box now looks like Figure FIGURE 24-3 The Sort dialog box is set up for the sales sorting example. Sorting in Excel Chapter

The result of your sort is shown in Figure 24-4. FIGURE 24-4 This figure shows the sorted sales transaction data.

4 The result of your sort is shown in Figure FIGURE 24-4 This figure shows the sorted sales transaction data. Note that all of Ashley s transactions are listed first, with eyeliner followed by foundation and so on. Eyeliner transactions are listed from the largest number of units sold to the smallest. In the case of a tie (see rows 6 and 7), the transactions are listed in chronological order. Using the Sort dialog box, you can easily add sort criteria (Add Level), delete sort criteria (Delete Level), copy the settings that define a level of the sort (Copy Level), or specify whether your data has headers. By selecting Options, you can make the sort operation case sensitive or even sort data for which each data item is listed in a different column (instead of the more common situation in which each case is in a different row). I have always wanted to sort my data based on cell color or font color. Is this possible in Excel 2013? In Excel 2013, sorting on cell or font color is simple. Consider the Makeup worksheet in the Makeupsorttemp.xlsx file. Several names in column F are highlighted in different colors. For example, Cici in cell F620 is highlighted in red, and Colleen in cell F833 is highlighted in yellow. Suppose you want names with green fill on top, followed by yellow and then by red, with the rest of the rows on the bottom. To sort the Name column by color, simply select the range you want to sort (E3:K1894), click Sort, and choose Add Level. Select the Name column, click the Sort On setting, and select Cell Color. (Selecting Font Color sorts by font color.) For the first level, select green from the Order 226 Chapter 24 Sorting in Excel

list, select yellow for the second level, and select red for the third level. The completed dialog box is shown in Figure 24-5.

FIGURE 24-5 The Sort dialog box is set up to sort by color. FIGURE 24-6 This figure shows the results of sorting by color.

5 list, select yellow for the second level, and select red for the third level. The completed dialog box is shown in Figure The resulting sort is shown in the Colors worksheet of the Makeupsort.xlsx file in the Practice Files folder for this chapter and in Figure FIGURE 24-5 The Sort dialog box is set up to sort by color. FIGURE 24-6 This figure shows the results of sorting by color. I love the great icon sets described in Chapter 23. Can I sort my data based on the icon in the cell? To sort by icon, select Cell Icon from the Sort On list in the Sort dialog box. In the Order list, choose the icon you want on top for the first level and so on. Sorting in Excel Chapter

6 My worksheet includes a column containing the month in which each sale occurred. When I sort by this column, I get either April (first month alphabetically) or October (last month alphabetically) on top. How can I sort by this column so that the months are chronologically sorted, that is, January transactions on top, followed by February and the following months? The Dates worksheet in the Makeupsorttemp.xlsx file contains a list of months. (See Figure 24-7.) You would like to sort the months so that they appear in chronological order beginning with January. Begin by selecting the D6:D15 range and sorting column D by values. When selecting the order, select Custom List and then select the option, beginning with January, February, March. Note that you could also have sorted by the day of the week. The completed dialog box is shown in Figure 24-8, with the resulting sort shown in Figure Note that in the Custom Lists dialog box, you can create a custom sort order list. Select New List; under List Entries, type the entries in the order you want to sort by and then click Add. Your new list is now included as a menu selection. For example, if you enter Jack, John, and Alan in List Entries (on different lines or separated by commas), all entries with Jack would be listed first, followed by John listings, with Alan listings at the end. FIGURE 24-7 This figure shows the months to be sorted. 228 Chapter 24 Sorting in Excel

FIGURE 24-8 The Sort dialog box is set up to sort by month. FIGURE 24-9 The months are sorted in chronological order. Can I sort data without using the Sort dialog box?

To illustrate how this is done, suppose again that you want to sort the sales transaction data in the Makeup worksheet in the Makeupsort.

7 FIGURE 24-8 The Sort dialog box is set up to sort by month. FIGURE 24-9 The months are sorted in chronological order. Can I sort data without using the Sort dialog box? Sometimes sorting data without using the Sort dialog box is more convenient. To illustrate how this is done, suppose again that you want to sort the sales transaction data in the Makeup worksheet in the Makeupsort.xlsx file so that transactions are sorted first by salesperson and then by product, by units sold, and, finally, in chronological order from the oldest to the most recent. To begin, select the least important column to sort on first, which is the date column (G3:G1894). Next, in the Sort & Filter group on the Data tab, click the Sort A To Z button (see Figure 25-10) and, with Expand The Selection selected, click Sort so that all the columns are sorted. The Sort A To Z button sorts numerical data so that the smallest numbers or oldest dates are on top and sorts text so that A precedes B and so on. Sorting in Excel Chapter

8 FIGURE The Sort icon can be used to sort without the Sort dialog box. The Sort Z To A button sorts numerical data so that the largest numbers or most recent dates are on top and sorts text data so that Z precedes Y. Next, sort by the second least important column (Units) Z To A because you want larger sales on top. Then sort from A to Z by Product, and, finally, from A to Z by salesperson. These steps achieve the same results as shown in Figure Problems 1. In the Makeupsort.xlsx file, sort the sales data alphabetically by location and then by product type, name, date of sale, and units sold. 2. The Sortday.xlsx file contains hours worked on different days of the week. Sort the data so that Monday data is followed by Tuesday data and so on. 3. The Sorticons.xlsx file contains annual investment returns with an up arrow used to indicate good years, a horizontal arrow used to indicate average years, and a red down arrow used to indicate bad years. Sort the data by the icons in the Stock column with up arrows on top, followed by horizontal arrows and then red down arrows. 4. The Makeupsortfont.xlsx file contains your makeup data with certain dates shown in blue, red, or brown font. Sort the data so that brown dates are on top, followed by red dates and then blue dates. 230 Chapter 24 Sorting in Excel

1. Select a cell in the column you want to sort by. In this example, we will sort by Last Name.

1. Select a cell in the column you want to sort by. In this example, we will sort by Last Name. Excel 2010 Sorting Data Introduction Page 1 With over 17 billion cells in a single worksheet, Excel 2010 gives you the ability to work with an enormous amount of data. Arranging your data alphabetically,