Excel sorting question

JodieR

I've got a page full of data where I want to sort each column alphabetically, independently of the other columns. Is there a short way to do this that doesn't involve macros or Vlookups?

Rinske

Could you just sort them all individually by selecting the column and click sort? When it asks to expand the selection or not, just continue with the current selection?

JodieR

yes, that's the quickest way i can think of, was hoping there was a way to do it all at once but that looks like wishful thinking!

Yazi

Maybe Add a filter
Put an extra row in at the top of your data
Then highlight the cells above data
Then..

Home Tab - Sort and Filter - Filter

Then you can sort whichever column you want.

Yazi

But I dont think thats what you want really......
:001_unsure:

blobbyh

Sort is a very simple but great function however it can go badly wrong if not understood properly. Make sure you highlight all the columns on the sheet or you risk misaligning the row data (if critical)... make a tab-copy of the sheet first and then play with it.

PGM

JodieR wrote: »

I've got a page full of data where I want to sort each column alphabetically, independently of the other columns. Is there a short way to do this that doesn't involve macros or Vlookups?

blobbyh wrote: »

Sort is a very simple but great function however it can go badly wrong if not understood properly. Make sure you highlight all the columns on the sheet or you risk misaligning the row data (if critical)... make a tab-copy of the sheet first and then play with it.

I think thats exactly what shes trying to do.

There's ways to do it, this seems to explain it but I've not tried. (does involve macros)

http://www.excelbanter.com/showthread.php?t=224225

JodieR

Thanks guys - i did just end up highlighting each column individually and sorting A-Z, bit of a faff on for 50 columns but didn't take that long really. It was multiple choice answers for a quiz which I wanted to show alphabetically as on the original sheet all the correct answers were on the top row, so they needed muddling up. Therefore no worry about misalignment.