Muddled data in Excel? Sort it out!

If you are trying to move grades from one spreadsheet to another, or cross reference your data, then it can be a real pain if the data is not sorted in the same way. In this short video we cover how to sort your data alphabetically or by custom fields.

For full Microsoft training please usehow to sort data

Sorting data is an integral part of data analysis. You might want to arrange a list of names in alphabetical order, compile a list of product inventory levels from highest to lowest, or order rows by colors or icons. Sorting data helps you quickly visualize and understand your data better, organize and find the data that you want, and ultimately make more effective decisions.

You can sort data by text (A to Z or Z to A), numbers (smallest to largest or largest to smallest), and dates and times (oldest to newest and newest to oldest) in one or more columns. You can also sort by a custom list you create (such as Large, Medium, and Small) or by format, including cell color, font color, or icon set. To find the top or bottom values in a range of cells or table, such as the top 10 grades or the bottom 5 sales amounts, use AutoFilter or conditional formatting. Check out the video to see how it's done.