Sorting Text in Excel using Formulas

Posted on October 22nd, 2008 in Analytics , Featured , Learn Excel - 67 comments

Sorting text is such a day to day activity that it always surprises me why Excel hasnt provided a
simple spreadsheet formula for doing it. Of course you can use the sorting menu command (menu >
data > sort) but this requires manual steps (or VBA). Most of the times we get raw textual data from
various sources and we need it to be sorted. While fooling with the COUNTIF() formula, I have realized
a powerful yet little known feature that can be exploited to sort text using formulas.

We all know that countif() can be used to find the number of cells in a given range matching a
criteria. But do you know that you can use COUNTIF() to find the number of cells in a range
greater than or less than a particular value?
Well, that is the trick to sorting text. How?

For eg. assume range A1:A10 has c,b,d,f,h,j,e,a,i,g in them. When you
write =countif(a1:a10,"<c") you will get 2 as the result.There are 2 cells with value less than c. In
other words, the sort order of c in the given cells is 3 (since it has 2 cells less than c)
You can use this on your own list to fetch the alphabetical sort order of each text value like this:
Essentially the sort order formula looks like this: =countif(SORT RANGE, "<="&CURRENT CELL)
Once you have the sort order, arranging the cells in that order is a piece of cake. We just use
VLOOKUP to do our job, like this: =VLOOKUP(1,SORT ORDER TABLE,2,FALSE). (PS: if you are worried
about unique cells, which you should, then use this formula instead, =VLOOKUP(small(SORT ORDER
COLUMN,1),SORT ORDER TABLE,2,FALSE)
What the heck is above formula doing? It is running a vlookup on the table containing original cells
and their sort order to fetch the cell with sort order 1 (or the smallest sort order). Replace the 1 with 2
to get the next cell in the alphabetical order.

Download the workbook with alphabetical text sorting using formulas and see this in action.
Bonus tip: Instead of rewriting the vlookup formula with 2, 3, 4 as lookup value you can use excel's
row() function to generate those running numbers for you. You just need to subtract correct value
from the row().
Also read: Shuffling a list of cells in random order using formulas, More analytics / text processing
tweaks
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Written by Chandoo

Tags: cool, Excel Tips, hacks, howto, microsoft,Microsoft Excel

Formulas, sorting, spreadsheets, text processing

Home: Chandoo.org Main Page

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 67 Responses to Sorting Text in Excel using Formulas

1. Robert says:

October 22, 2008 at 7:20 pm

Chandoo,

very nice trick for sorting texts without array formulas. I have never seen this one before.

There is one shortfall though: The technique only works with a list of unique items.

But I guess you could easily solve this problem in a similar way we did it in the 2nd post of the KPI
dashboard series for numbers.

Reply

2. JT says:

October 22, 2008 at 9:19 pm

Love the RSS, Delicious, and stumble upon icons.

Reply

3. Chandoo says:

October 22, 2008 at 9:44 pm

@Robert: Thanks

I guess it works the same way with non-unique values as long as you are fetching the sorted
values.
 But if you need to fetch any other table data based on the sort order of the value, then you we have
to use your method of adding a small fraction to the sort order value to ensure that it is unique.

@ JT: thanks, they are hand-drawn. Feel free to copy or share them

Reply

4. Robert says:

October 23, 2008 at 7:37 am

Chandoo,

sorry, but the technique in the workbook you posted for download does not work for a list with non-
unique values:

E.g. overwrite the second entry in your list (Bill Gates) with the first one (Steve Jobs). The sort
order number will then be 10 for the first two rows of the list, there will be no number 9 in the sort
order column and the VLOOKUP fails when looking for number 9.

As mentioned you can easily overcome this by adding a help column with formulas that add very
small, unique fractions to the text.

Nevertheless: using COUNTIF for sorting texts is a very clever idea and technique. Thanks for
sharing.

Oh, by the way: Im a PC. Replacing Bill Gates by Steve Jobs was just an example

Reply

o Solmyre says:

June 21, 2012 at 10:22 pm

Easier solution still:

 Simply add in iferror and duplicate error values with the value that populates below. Non-unique
values cause an error in a specific direction leaving the last duplicate correctly populated (unless
you reverse the search direction) so simply have your errors redirect to the cell below. That way
your duplicates will populate correctly without requiring you to create an additional column or using
fractions etc.

Example:Say you have your countif on column A, your values to sort on B and your sorted results
on C. Say value 3 is a duplicate and will generate an error, using iferror you can just redirect down
to the result below and copy the duplicate value correctly.

IFERROR(VLOOKUP(3,A1:B10,2,FALSE),C4))

An actual forumla which makes far less sense looks like this:
=IF($V11=",",IFERROR(VLOOKUP($V11,$T$11:$U$3012,2,FALSE),$X12))
The point is, it uses iferror to point to cell x12 below it and gets past the duplicate problem with
the missing value that V11 is looking at.

This is currently the best method I have seen for sorting via formula. Im sure there is a way to
break it, but I havent encountered it yet.

Reply

5. Frederick says:

October 23, 2008 at 8:21 am

Hi PHD,

I am very new to Excel and your site. I must say that alot of stuff I have seen on this site and other
other sites linked has really opened my eyes to the possibilities of Excel.

Regarding this technique, I have some questions:

1) Your technique is perfect if the list is small as only a very small amount of formulas (COUNTIF,
VLOOKUP) are required to execute it.
2) I fiddled with your file for a long while before I came up with an alternative using MATCH and
OFFSET (inspired by Roberts earlier post on Dashboard) Hence my question is: if the list is huge
(e.g 50,000 records and we all know how VLOOKUP freezes up over huge databases) would my
 method require less resources than yours?
3) I still have not figured a way to cater for unique records using my method
Still like to say thanks for all the posts which is contributing to my appreciation of creativity with
Excel!

Reply

6. Robert says:

October 23, 2008 at 9:54 am

Frederick,

I have never checked but I doubt MATCH and OFFSET will use less resources and speed up
calculations compared to a VLOOKUP solution. I cant think of any formula based, non-VBA solution
that sorts 50.000 records in reasonable time.

If you really have 50.000 records, I recommend to store the data in a database (MySQL, Access,
etc.), create queries in the database to consolidate and sort the data and retrieve the data in Excel
from the database.

Reply

7. Chandoo says:

October 23, 2008 at 12:37 pm

@Robert, you are right. Actually there is a simple workaround for unique cells problem.

Inseted of using running numbers like 1,2,3 you can use small() function to fetch the nth smallest
number in the list and then use it in vlookup. This was the original solution I had used. But then I
removed the small() to make it easier to understand not realizing the damage it creates for the
unique cells. One reasons why I said it works for unique cells dumb me

Here is how I would write the formula:

=VLOOKUP(small(SORT ORDER COLUMN,1),SORT ORDER TABLE,2,FALSE).
 This works well, since small would return 10 after 8 if both 9 and 10 rows are same. I will edit the
post and add a note about this.

@Frederick: Welcome to PHD site and thanks for taking time to comment.

As Robert said, the best way is to use VBA or some DB method. I wouldnt trust excel with 50000
records for simpler formulas, not to mention the sorting or lookups. I am not sure how much
performance improvements match / offset would give either.

However if you are planning to write vba do check out this post on scanning large ranges, it may
help you in writing optimum code: http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/archive/2008/10/03/what-is-the-
fastest-way-to-scan-a-large-range-in-excel.aspx

Reply

8. derek says:

October 23, 2008 at 12:44 pm

Robert,

If you replace

ROW()-ROW($E$5)

with

SMALL($B$6:$B$15,ROW()-ROW($E$5))

it works again! Because the SMALL formula looks for the ninth smallest value, which is 10

Reply

9. derek says:

October 23, 2008 at 12:52 pm

 Struck by inspiration, I tried SMALL() all on its own with text values, as a possible way of cutting
through all the complication.

Sadly, unlike COUNTIF(), SMALL() does not accept strings. I see no reason why it could not have, if
MS had thought about it. It would then be the simple spreadsheet formula Chandoo wished for.

Reply

10. Robert says:

October 23, 2008 at 1:17 pm

Chandoo, Derek,

thanks for the tips. This is fantastic.

Using COUNTIF and VLOOKUP for formula based sorting is much more elegant than the technique I
used in the KPI dashboard workbook.

And it works with numbers and texts. As derek pointed, the technique using SMALL or LARGE (see
KPI dashboard post nr. 2) works with numbers only.

You could easily add an IF-clause into the COUNTIF formula to switch between >= and <= and let
the user toggle the sort order.

A really great idea, Chandoo. Thanks for sharing!!

Reply

11. Rajesh says:

October 23, 2008 at 6:14 pm

Hi solution to solve the non-unique problem that you foresee in the formula given above

Use =COUNTIF($A$2:$A$7,<&A2)+1 instead of the formula above

 I bet it works.

I would like to thank the person who has devised the formula as it an excellent one! If it doesnt
work, give me a slap by emailing me.

Reply

12. Frederick says:

October 24, 2008 at 1:58 am

Hi PHD/Robert,

Thanks for the feedback. I never touched VBA or macros in my life so all that I know of Excel are
just formulas

Thankfully, I dont have to manage large databases at this point in time Anyway, I hope I will be
able to learn more about creative uses of Excel formulas here!

Cheers!

Reply

13. Chandoo says:

October 24, 2008 at 12:44 pm

@Derek: You are right, using small() or large() should solve the problem. I have updated the post
with this. Thanks. Btw, how nice it would be if MS had actually enabled small/large for text. But.

@Robert thanks so much for the wonderful words.

@Rajesh: Welcome to PHD blog and thanks for comments

I am not sure how adding 1 to countif() can make the sort order counts unique. instead of having
two 9s we will now have two 10s. Can you explain?
 @Frederick: VBA is a double-edged sword. Good thing you havent ventured in to it. I have barely
used VBA in my first 4 years with excel and even today I get a mild sense of panic while hitting
ALT+F11 to open that code window.

Keep in touch

Reply

14. David says:

December 9, 2008 at 4:33 pm

What if I want to sort the following:

Value, Rank
1,2
2,3
3,1
4,4
5,4
It should be:
Value,Rank
3,1
1,2
2,3
4,4
5,4
How do I get this to work? I get 4,4 and 4,4 for the last two rows. Help!

Reply

15. Chandoo says:

December 10, 2008 at 4:09 am

 @David: You can make excel return unique rows by adding a very small random fraction to the
original values or running fractions to the original values. We have used similar technique in our KPI
dashboards to ensure that each row is unique. You may want to check it out

http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/08/27/excel-kpi-dashboard-sort-2/
Let me know if you still have some doubts I suggest you download the files provided in that post
and see how the formulas are written

Reply

16. Ketan says:

December 10, 2008 at 9:16 am

@David :
Insert your data, say, in D6 to D10 cell.
Insert one more coln. say E.
Put the formula MID(D6,FIND(,,D6)+1,10) in cell E6 and copy till E10.
Select Range D6 :E10 and sort by col E (Ascending) you will get desired result.

Reply

17. David says:

December 10, 2008 at 5:42 pm

Thank you Chandoo and Ketan. You guys(/gals?) rock. Since I found this website a few weeks ago I
have learned SOOOOOO much. I look forward to learning much more and being able to contribute
sometime as well.
David

Reply

18. uberVU - social comments says:

 October 27, 2009 at 5:14 am

Social comments and analytics for this post

This post was mentioned on Twitter by r1c1: @lohhw3 oops..my mistake, I think you need to use
formulas to sort numbers and text. learn more: http://bit.ly/q1zw9

Reply

19. Sorting text cells using array formula in excel says:

November 3, 2009 at 2:11 pm

[...] on Mar.27, 2009. Email This article to a Friend I am inspired once again by the article Sorting
Text in Excel using Formulas at Pointy haired Dilbert. In Chandoos article he sorts text with a
"helper" column. My goal with [...]

Reply

20. Rifat Ahmed says:

March 23, 2010 at 8:13 pm

Thank you very, very much. You really helped me a lot. I was looking for something like that for so
long.

Reply

21. badprogeny says:

May 27, 2010 at 5:43 am

thanks man,you guys rock.

ive been looking for something like this for more than a year now.
 now u cured my headache.
but i still have something to ask.
i have a list which includes repeating names.
something like the following:
1.Ronald Reagan
2.George Bush
3.Bill Clinton
4.Barrack Obama
5.George Bush
6.Bill Clinton
after i sorted it with ur algorithm,
i found that
1.Barrack Obama
2.Bill Clinton
3.Bill Clinton
4.George Bush
5.George Bush
6.Ronald Reagan
now what i want is just:
1.Barrack Obama
2.Bill Clinton
3.George Bush
4.Ronald Reagan
im at my wits end figuring out how to count only once.
i tried rank and countif with any possible way that i could think of.
there should be a way to do it without resorting to vba.
thanks in advance.
this is not directly related to ur sorting algorithm but
its partly related i guess because what if the sort list contains repeating entries

Reply

o Chandoo says:

May 27, 2010 at 5:50 am

@Badprogeny thank you so much for your comment and Welcome to Chandoo.org.
 You can get rid of duplicates and then sort using below technique.

(1) first get rid of all duplicate and create a new list in a separate column see
this:http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/11/06/unique-duplicate-missing-items-excel-help/
(2) now pass the second list to formulas in this post to get them sorted.. that is all..

Reply

o mohammad says:

March 26, 2012 at 7:41 pm

hi , and thanks alot for this helpful guide

i have same problem like this so i changed the formula for Sort Order in above with this :
Sum(countif($c$6:$C$15,<="&C6),-countif(c6:$C$15,"<="&C6)
if you want to keep duplicated
and this :
if(countif(C6:$C$15,"<="&C6)=1,Sum(countif($c$6:$C$15,"<="&C6),-
countif(c6:$C$15,"<="&C6),"")
if you dont want to keep duplicated

Reply

22. badprogeny says:

May 27, 2010 at 6:05 am

thanks,really appreciate the very quick reply.

now i call that genius.
u guys rock.

Reply

23. badprogeny says:

 May 28, 2010 at 4:52 am

Now that I am asking for your help,let me ask again.

I already googled and tried it out in excel,but cant find what I want,which is:
I have 2 columns,which have repeating names in each column,
I want to get an algorithm to merge these 2 columns into one retaining
only a single instance of same names.
Column A Column B Column C
1.Bill Clinton John Travolta Bill Clinton
2.Barrack Obama Denzel Washington Barrack Obama
3.George Washington Bill Clinton George Washington
4.Abraham Lincoln Paris Hilton Abraham Lincoln
5.Paris Hilton Paris Hilton
6. John Travolta
7. Denzel Washington
Im sorry if its easily achievable and stupid,but I cant figure out how to do it using functions
Thanks in advance.

Reply

24. badprogeny says:

May 28, 2010 at 5:03 am

Im sorry,the words didnt retain the formatting,

let me explain again.
I have 2 columns,which have repeating names in each column,
I want to get an algorithm to merge these 2 columns into one retaining
only a single instance of same names.
Column A
1.Bill Clinton
2.Barrack Obama
3.George Washington
4.Abraham Lincoln
Column B
1.George Washington
2.John Travolta
 3.Denzel Washington
4.Bill Clinton
5.Paris Hilton
6.Abraham Lincoln
Column C
1.Bill Clinton
2.Barrack Obama
3.George Washington
4.Abraham Lincoln
5.John Travolta
6.Denzel Washington
7.Paris Hilton
Im sorry if its easily achievable and stupid,but I cant figure out how to do it using functions
Thanks in advance.

Reply

25. Chandoo says:

May 28, 2010 at 9:01 am

@Badprogeny.. very good and interesting question. I will come up with a macro or formula based
approach for this and post on the blog soon. Keep an eye.

Reply

26. badprogeny says:

May 28, 2010 at 9:31 am

Thank you,Sir.
I noticed that I wrote do it using functions,but what I meant wasusing formulae.
Waiting for your post.

Reply
27. roman p says:

July 6, 2010 at 6:47 pm

If you have duplicate items, determine the right index by subtracting the number of identical,
preceding rows: =COUNTIF(SORT RANGE, <="&CURRENT CELL)-COUNTIF(MODIFIED SORT
RANGE,"="&CURRENT CELL where MODIFIED SORT RANGE includes the SORT RANGE except the
portion below the current cell, ie. $F$3:$F6 assuming the sort range starts at F3 and the current
cell is F6.

Reply

28. Mike says:

September 21, 2010 at 3:30 pm

Very well done and very helpful. Thank you so much.

Reply

29. Chandoo says:

September 22, 2010 at 3:13 am

@Mike.. Thank you

Reply

30. Gal says:

 October 11, 2010 at 3:12 am

Chandoo,

Thank you so much for your blog and information. I find everything here extremely helpful. My
question is about a sort using two columns (or more!) as key, eg. i have one column of non-unique
and unique text (lets say {apple, bananna, plum, banana, plum, plum, apple, apple, plum}), and
then another column which is uniques values (ie prices). How would i first sort by the first column
(which is virtually grouping because I have many similar values), but then sort from big to small? (i
will get first all the apples from expensive to cheap, then bananas and then plums)

thanks!
Gal

Reply

31. war no says:

November 25, 2010 at 5:01 am

dear all,
i tried this formula on my data that contains: 1,3,4,M1,M27,M16,M31,12,57,216.
it doesnt work, especially on cell contain combined text and number like M1, etc.
how i modify this formula for my above data?
thanks and regards,
war no

Reply

o Chandoo says:

November 25, 2010 at 5:28 am

@War no: try http://datapigtechnologies.com/blog/index.php/sorting-numbers-and-text-together/

 Reply

32. war no says:

November 25, 2010 at 6:49 am

@chandoo
sorry, the link you give is look like to sorting data by manual not using formulas like from your
web above.
war no

Reply

33. Chandoo says:

November 25, 2010 at 8:06 am

@War No.. you can modify the formulas slightly to solve this. But the definition of sort order varies
alot when you are talking about numbers and text mixed. I have put together an example
here:http://chandoo.org/img/playground/sorting-numbers-and-text.xlsx
Examine the formulas and modify them as you see fit.

Reply

34. war no says:

November 25, 2010 at 9:17 am

dear boss Chandoo,

Great, thats what i want. Thank you very much.

war no
 Reply

35. febin says:

March 4, 2011 at 12:44 pm

supper techniqu thumps up buddy

Reply

36. Ben Lam says:

April 28, 2011 at 10:02 pm

Awesome find! Thanks for sharing.

Reply

37. Chiga says:

July 6, 2011 at 8:29 pm

I stumbled upon this forum and this is like treasure island. Great work guys.
Im stuck at a similar issue and I think you would know a solution.
Im trying to sort on a non-unique column but also fetching the corresponding unique value
Here is an example. Sorting on Part Name (COL B) :
COL A Part # (UNIQUE) 9,5,1,7,4,6
COL B Part Name (Non-Unique) Buffy,Genius,Cherry,Cherry,Sharpie,Amy
Basically part 1 and part 7 are both called Cherry.
COL C I executed the COUNTIF formula on col B as discussed. Resulting values 2,5,4,4,6,1
COL D VLOOKUP for Part # using the small function yeilds 6,9,1,1,5,4
Im missing 7 for Cherry. Is there a way to overcome this without ceding to VBA ?
 Thanks

Reply

38. Chiga says:

July 6, 2011 at 9:17 pm

Right after I posted my problem on this forum a bulb lit up. I guess the collaborative brain power on
this forum helped clear the clutter in my head.

I used a helper col E to concatenate Col B & Col A so that each row becomes unique. COL D
Buffy9, Genius5, Cherry1, Cherry7, Sharpie4, Amy6. I executed the count-if on the helper col
instead of the Part Name. Resulting values 2,5,3,4,6,1. Now I could do an easy VLOOKUP to fetch
both my original Part # and Part Name and said bye-bye to SMALL function.

The scenario posted by Robert for sorting non-unique records could also be solved using this
method. Simply concatenate a sequence number behind the name and use count-if on the helper
column. This will eliminate the need to use the SMALL function.

Any more ways to solve this problem?

Reply

39. Suicides & Murders by US States An Interactive Excel Chart | Chandoo.org - Learn Microsoft Excel

Online says:

September 9, 2011 at 8:56 am

[...] is the tricky part. I have used COUNTIF formula to sort the list. Learn how to sort a list of
values using formulas [More on sorting [...]

Reply
40. Pablo says:

September 12, 2011 at 4:57 pm

Hi Chandoo,
You made a good point, there is no formula to sort, but using VBA, we can create a function that
does it us. So I came up with 2 approaches.
The 1st one sortme requires the range and the position number in the sorted list, in this way if
you copy the formula down, starting with position 1, you will get a sorted list.
The 2nd one sortme1 requires the range and the order, 0 for ascending and 1 for descending. The
results come up in the same cell with ; separator (a function limitation as far as try).
Here is the code:
Function Sortme(miRango As Range, Optional ByVal Order As Integer) As String
If Order = 0 Then Order = 1
For Each cell In miRango
temp1 = Application.WorksheetFunction.CountIf(miRango, <=" & cell.Value)
If Order = temp1 Then Exit For
Next cell
Sortme = cell.Value
End Function
Function Sortme1(miRango As Range, Optional ByVal Order As Integer) As String
Dim Resp(), C, Largo, temp1, temp2
Largo = miRango.Rows.Count
ReDim Resp(Largo)
C=0
temp2 = ""
For Each cell In miRango
C=C+1
temp1 = Application.WorksheetFunction.CountIf(miRango, "<=" & cell.Value)
Resp(temp1) = cell.Value
Next cell
For I = 1 To C
If Order = 0 Then
temp2 = temp2 & Resp(I) & ";"
Else
temp2 = Resp(I) & ";" & temp2
End If
 Next I
Sortme1 = temp2
End Function
Enjoy,
Pablo

Reply

41. Mike L. says:

November 11, 2011 at 4:19 am

Hi,
I stumbled upon your page while searching for a formula that will take a column of names, LAST,
FIRST, (there are gaps between some names) in a spreadsheet, and display them in alphabetical
order (with no gaps between) in a different part of the spreadsheet. I am not well versed in
formulas, if you recommend a formula, please explain in simple terms. Thank you in advance. Mike

Reply

42. Markosys says:

December 30, 2011 at 10:02 pm

Im new to excel array techniques (and loving it), so please forgive me if my questions solution is
obvious, but your tip goes a long way toward answering it.

I need to perform an approximate match upon an unsorted table and then lookup an associated
value. For your example, maybe add a approval rating column. Because the unsorted table is
dynamic and will gain many new rows over time, I need the solution to be formula-based, with no
intermediate tables.

Is there a way to build upon your tip to have the sorted result in memory as an array that then
could be applied to the related column? My current strategy would be to use the LOOKUP vector
function upon the two like-sorted arrays.
 Ive learned from some other sources, but am having a difficult time knitting it together (see links
below).

Many Thanks!

Mr Excel & excelisfun Trick 36: VLOOKUP w Approximate Match & Unsorted
Table?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxhL72gvM5E
Sort values in parallel (array formula)
http://www.get-digital-help.com/2010/01/12/sorts-values-in-parallel-array-formula

Reply

43. Anonymous says:

March 8, 2012 at 9:12 pm

here is what I am getting can someone help?

Sort Order Info needing Sorting Sorted Info

11 Anonymous #N/A
11 Anonymous #N/A
11 Anonymous #N/A
11 Anonymous #N/A
11 Anonymous #N/A
11 Anonymous #N/A
11 Anonymous #N/A
11 Anonymous #N/A
11 Anonymous #N/A
11 Anonymous #N/A
11 Anonymous Anonymous

Reply

o M says:

July 9, 2013 at 3:18 pm

 HI
i have such as problem

Reply

44. David G says:

March 27, 2012 at 12:48 am

Great formula. Im trying to take it one step further, but need some help.

I have a long list of items, in 3 different categories (i.e. Column A is all unique values, Column B is
1 of 3 values). I have 3 different tabs, one for each category, where I want an alphabetized list.

How can I alter this formula so that I get numerical order among only the same category? That way
I can use an IF formula combined with a VLOOKUP to get alphabetized lists on each category tab.

Heres an example list:

Banana | Fruit
Grape | Fruit
Pork | Meat
Carrot | Vegetable
Beef | Meat
Onion | Vegetable
How do I make a formula to get Banana, Beef, and Carrot to all be 1 and the rest all be 2?

Reply

o David G says:

March 27, 2012 at 12:51 am

By the way, I dont want to manually sort the list as I want to be able to insert new items to the list
and have everything re-alphabetize without. Basically, I should be able to data enter on the data
tab and have all the other 3 tabs resort after each new entry.
 Reply

o David G says:

March 27, 2012 at 1:19 am

Got it, but perhaps there is a simpler process:

1) I made a new column with formulas =CATEGORY&ITEM to combine the 2 terms (result
FruitBanana, etc.)
2) I used the original formula to get an order for all this new merged text.
3) I made column that has this formula =COUNTIF(CATEGORY COLUMN,<"&CATEGORY CELL). It
returned zeroes for the first category items, the number of first category items for the second
category items, and the number of first and second catgory items for the third category items.
4) The difference between #2 and #3 gets me the answer
Obviously I'll combine formulas in 2) and 3) to get 4) with less columns. I can possibly even merge
1) as well so I don't need that column, but I'll have to play around with that.

Essentially the formula is = ORDER OF EVERYTHING NUMBER OF THINGS THAT FALL IN OTHER
CATEGORIES THAT COME FIRST ALPHABETICALLY.

Reply

45. Noor says:

April 18, 2012 at 11:29 am

I need to ask help about my problem for sorting.

I am making the NCR report and want to take data from 1 table to other, such as:
Table 1 ( April 2012)
Date NCR #
1 101
2 101
2 105
3 502
 4 502
4 205
And put the above data to calendar table to make the graph :

Table 2: Date
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 .. 30
NCR#
101 1 1
105 1
205 1
502 1 1
Please help.

Thanks in advance.

Reply

46. Gameguy says:

May 29, 2012 at 6:59 am

Dear sir,

It is very useful for sorting, but i tested my case if the cell is number in text format. eg. 123456.

Seem the formula doesnt works, could you teach me ?

Many tks.

Gameguy

Reply

47. Ariel Wong says:

 August 22, 2012 at 5:40 am

My solution is much simpler.

1. My unsorted numbers ( or words ) are listed horizontally. e.g. B29 G29 ( 6 numbers ). I
choose 29 so that it wont be confused with the 1 used in RANK function
2. My sorted numbers shall be in cells J29-O29,
3. The formula for cell J29 is
=IF(RANK($B29,$B29:$G29,1)=1,$B29,IF(RANK($C29,$B29:$G29,1)=1,$C29,IF(RANK($D29,$B29
:$G29,1)=1,$D29,IF(RANK($E29,$B29:$G29,1)=1,$E29,IF(RANK($F29,$B29:$G29,1)=1,$F29,IF(R
ANK($G29,$B29:$G29,1)=1,$G29,$Q29))))))
3. The formula for cell K29 is just convert all the =1 into =2
4. The formula for the rest is =3 for L29 and so on till =6 for O29.
5. The RANK function will rank every cell in the range. There will not be any unranked. The last
part .. ,IF(RANK($G29,$B29:$G29,1)=1,$G29,$Q29)
If there are more than one same number .. meaning there are more than one number of the same
rank.. it would duplicated the first number of the same rank.
Hope this would help u guys.

Reply

48. Extract a Sorted & Ranked Unique list of items with criteria | Chandoo.org - Learn Microsoft Excel

Online says:

October 4, 2012 at 7:01 am

[...] http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/10/22/sorting-text-in-excel-using-formulas/ [...]

Reply

49. david says:

October 22, 2012 at 7:19 pm

Genius. Originally I accomplished the same thing with big, ugly use of INDIRECT, but the source
worbook was to be used in within Xcelsius, which doesnt support INDIRECT. Not only does this
 solution work in Xcelsius, it hogs a heck of a lot fewer resources than my original idea. Five points
for you, sir.

Final formula added a check for blanks, assigning them 999 to force them off the final list of around
100; and then a reset to subtract the number of blanks from the final list. Works beautimous.

=IF(B5=",999,COUNTIF($B$5:$B$76,<=&B5)-COUNTIF($B$5:$B$76,"))

Thanks for the help. May a giant cookie soon come into your life.

Reply

50. Ariel Wong says:

October 24, 2012 at 7:06 am

Hi,
I have doen slight modification to the formula above to auto-get the position of sorted numbers.
1. Consider my unsorted numbers in cell A1 F1
2. My sorted numbers shall be in A2-F2
3. For cell A2 the formula is
=IF(RANK($A1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(A1),A1,IF(RANK($B1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(A1),$B1,IF(RANK(
$C1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(A1),C1,IF(RANK($D1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(A1),$D1,IF(RANK($E1,$A1:$
F1,1)=COLUMN(A1),$E1,IF(RANK($F1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(A1),$F1))))))
there is no need to check for duplicates for the first cell
4. For cell B2 the formula is slightly different at the end..
=IF(RANK($A1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),B1,IF(RANK($B1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$B1,IF(RANK(
$C1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),D1,IF(RANK($D1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$D1,IF(RANK($E1,$A1:$
F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$E1,IF(RANK($F1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$F1,A1))))))
there is an additional =COLUMN(B1),$F1,A1))))))
If there are numbers of same rank, the prior number shall be duplicated .

Hope this is better . thanks

Reply
o Ariel Wong says:

October 24, 2012 at 7:13 am

Arrggh.. the FULL formula for A2.

=IF(RANK($A1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(A1),$A1,
IF(RANK($B1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(A1),$B1,
IF(RANK($C1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(A1),$C1,
IF(RANK($D1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(A1),$D1,
IF(RANK($E1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(A1),$E1,
IF(RANK($F1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(A1),$F1))))))

And the full formula for cell B2 ..

=IF(RANK($A1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$A1,
IF(RANK($B1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$B1,
IF(RANK($C1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$C1,
IF(RANK($D1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$D1,
IF(RANK($E1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$E1,
IF(RANK($F1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$F1,B2))))))

Just change this COLUMN(B1) to COLUMN(C1) for the third cell and so on

Reply

Ariel Wong says:

October 24, 2012 at 7:19 am

Correction for cell B2 should be ..

=IF(RANK($A1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$A1,
IF(RANK($B1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$B1,
IF(RANK($C1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$C1,
IF(RANK($D1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$D1,
IF(RANK($E1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$E1,
IF(RANK($F1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$F1,A2))))))
 the last part , in event of a duplicate number should duplicate the prior number ..
IF(RANK($F1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$F1,A2))))))

Reply

Ariel Wong says:

March 1, 2013 at 2:25 pm

Additional correction
make sure you change the last part too..
for Cell B2 .. IF(RANK($F1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$F1,A2))))))
for Cell C2 .. IF(RANK($F1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$F1,B2))))))
for Cell D2 .. IF(RANK($F1,$A1:$F1,1)=COLUMN(B1),$F1,C2))))))
and so on..

Reply

51. Javier says:

February 6, 2013 at 7:27 pm

I cannot find the words to thank you.

This solution is so obvious I cannot believe how many years using a much more complex solution
(VBA).
Thanks!

Reply

52. Akshay says:

February 23, 2013 at 3:51 pm

 This is the inspiration I needed for what I was trying to do. Thank you.
Last but not the least, Sarah Palin and Paris Hilton is just not right in this group or we can create a
new group with Kardashians in there as well. Opinion??

Reply

53. Ruben says:

February 28, 2013 at 11:56 am

This opens possiblities! Many thanks for this wonderful solution and your website in general!

Reply

54. Deepak Sugandhi says:

May 26, 2013 at 5:56 pm

The array formula I was using was very slow & using lot of resorces (My data has around 1000
rows). This is lot faster. Thanks Chandoo.

Reply

55. ali says:

June 23, 2013 at 6:18 pm

Dear,
i want that if i will put the figure ( amount ) in a row so automatically text of that amount should
come on another row of column,
like :- 3555/- so in text three thousand five hundred fifty five only.
help me to make a formula.
thank you
 Reply

56. NK says:

January 4, 2014 at 10:34 am

I have a sheet containing formula for automatically sorting text data (e.g. names), you can
download it from:
http://www.nanakasep.blogspot.com/2014/01/rumus-excel-untuk-menyusun-nama-secara.html

Reply

57. El Bee says:

January 9, 2014 at 7:11 pm

I just found this blog; interesting use of vlookup and countif but this doesnt work if you have a
fluctuating table of names. I have a column that can hold up to 20 names and your example came
back with #N/A because I was using the entire table which had several blank cells. If I reduced my
table to just include those cells with values other than then the formulas work. But since I use a
link to another spreadsheet to load my table it may have 5 names one day, 13 another day, and
maybe eve 20 another day.
Is there a work around for this or do I need to search for another solution? The standard sort
function also fails to sort correctly because of the empty cells.
FYI: my table uses a Name and I use that Name in your formulas.
Thanks for your time,

El Bee

Reply
Press ALT + F11 to open the Visual Basic Editor, Insert > Module and paste into the white
space on the right:

Code:
Sub makelastcell()
Dim x As Integer
Dim str As String
Dim xlong As Long, clong As Long, rlong As Long
On Error GoTo 0
str = ActiveCell.Address
Range(ActiveCell.Row + 1 & ":" & Cells.Rows.Count).Delete
xlong = ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Rows.Count
xlong = ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Columns.Count
Range(Cells(1, ActiveCell.Column + 1), Cells(Cells.Rows.Count,
Cells.Columns.Count)).Delete
Beep
xlong = ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Rows.Count + ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Columns.Count
rlong = Cells.SpecialCells(xlLastCell).Row
clong = Cells.SpecialCells(xlLastCell).Column
If rlong <= ActiveCell.Row And clong <= ActiveCell.Column Then Exit Sub
ActiveWorkbook.Save
xlong = ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Rows.Count + ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Columns.Count
rlong = Cells.SpecialCells(xlLastCell).Row
clong = Cells.SpecialCells(xlLastCell).Column
If rlong <= ActiveCell.Row And clong <= ActiveCell.Column Then Exit Sub
MsgBox "Sorry, Have failed to make " & str & " your last cell"
End Sub

Press ALT + Q to close the code window.

Click in the cell that you want to make the last cell then on the Developer tab click Macros,
click on makelastcell then click the Run button.

Limit the Number or Rows and Columns in an Excel Worksheet

By Ted French
Limit Rows and Columns in Excel - Temporarily
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Limit Rows in an Excel Worksheet

Ted French

Limit Rows and Columns in Excel - Temporarily

Even though each worksheet in Excel 2007 or 2010 can have more than 1,000,000 rows and more than 16,000 columns it's not
often that we need that much room.

Mostly we use considerably fewer than the maximum number of rows and columns and sometimes it might be an advantage to
limit access to unused areas of the worksheet.

For example, to avoid accidental changes to certain data it is sometimes useful to place it in area of the worksheet where it can't
be reached.

Or, if less experienced users need to access your worksheet limiting where they can go can keep them from getting lost in the
empty rows and columns that sit outside the data area.

Whatever the reason, you can temporarily limit the number of rows and columns accessible by changing the Scroll Area property
of the worksheet.

Example: Temporarily Limit Rows and Columns in a Worksheet

For help with this example, see the image above.

Note: This setting is retained only so long as a workbook is open. Once it is closed any changes to the scroll area are removed.

In this example we will change the properties of a worksheet to limit the number of rows to 30 and the number of columns to 26.

1. Open a blank Excel file.

2. Right-click on the sheet tab at the bottom right of the screen for Sheet 1.

3. Click on View Code in the menu to open the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) editor window.

4. Find the Sheet Properties window in the bottom left corner of the VBA editor window.

5. Find the Scroll Area property in the list of worksheet properties.

6. Click in the empty box to the right of the Scroll Area label.

7. Type a1:z30 in the box.

8. Click on File > Save in the menus to open the Save as dialog box.

9. Choose a filename and location and click Save to save the worksheet.

10. Close the VBA editor window and return the worksheet.

11. Test the worksheet. You should not be able to scroll below row 30 or to the right of column Z.

12. In addition you should not be able to click on a cell beyond Z30 in the worksheet.
13. To remove the scroll restrictions, close and reopen the workbook.
Disable Copy, Paste and Saveas

Of course, protecting the workbook with passwords will keep it from being altered in any
way you do not want to allow.

However, the only way to keep it from being copied from within Excel is to use macros to
disable the:

Right Click Context Menus

Edit > Copy
Edit > Cut
File > Save As
File > Save as Web Page
File > Save Workspace

Here are three macros to accomplish that:

The first macro disables the commandbar controls in File and Edit, and the shortcuts;
Control + C and Control + X.

The second disables the Right Click Context Menu.

The third reinstates all commandbars, menu options, shortcuts, and the right click context
menu upon closing the workbook.

Open your workbook.

Copy all three macros to the clipboard:

Private Sub Workbook_Open()

Application.CommandBars("Edit"). _
Controls("&Copy").Enabled = False
Application.CommandBars("Edit"). _
Controls("Cu&t").Enabled = False
Application.CommandBars("File"). _
Controls("Save &As...").Enabled = False
Application.CommandBars("File"). _
Controls("Save as Web Page...").Enabled = False
Application.CommandBars("File"). _
Controls("Save &Workspace...").Enabled = False
Application.OnKey "^x", ""
Application.OnKey "^c", ""
End Sub

Private Sub Workbook_SheetBeforeRightClick _

(ByVal Sh As Object, ByVal Target As Range, _
Cancel As Boolean)
Cancel = True
End Sub

Private Sub Workbook_BeforeClose(Cancel As Boolean)

Application.CommandBars("Edit"). _
Controls("&Copy").Enabled = True
Application.CommandBars("Edit"). _
Controls("Cu&t").Enabled = True
Application.CommandBars("File"). _
Controls("Save &As...").Enabled = True
Application.CommandBars("File"). _
Controls("Save as Web Page...").Enabled = True
Application.CommandBars("File"). _
Controls("Save &Workspace...").Enabled = True
Application.OnKey "^x"
Application.OnKey "^c"
End Sub

Press ALT + F11

Double click on 'This Workbook' in the Microsoft Excel Objects (upper left).

Paste all three macros into the Module space to the right.

Close back to Excel.

Save the workbook.

Now, when you open the workbook, all the ways to copy/saveas will be disabled. When you
close the workbook, they will all be enabled for use in other Excel workbooks.

Still, if you put a copy on a CD, anyone can copy the CD unless you use some third party
software such as these to prevent that

http://www.cd-writer.com/cd_dvd_copy_pro...

And... even then it is possible to simply put the CD in one's PC CD player and copy it from
Window's Explorer/My Computer.

Restrict Access to your documents using

Information Rights Management Service
Microsoft has included a new feature in Office 2010 called Information Rights Management (IRM). IRM is a service
meant to restricted access to your Microsoft Word Docs, Microsoft Excel Workbooks and Microsoft PowerPoint
presentations. This allows you can specify access permissions on your documents, spreadsheets and presentations
to allow certain individuals to use it. It helps prevent sensitive information from being printed, forwarded, or copied by
unauthorized people.

The way Information Rights Management Service is designed once the permissions for the file has been restricted
using it, the file access and usage restrictions are then strictly enforced and will be always there, because the
permissions are contained in the file itself.

Organizations can use IRM to help them to enforce their corporate policy governing the control and dissemination of
proprietary or confidential information. Microsoft Office with IRM allows the organizations to keep their confidential
and classified information to themselves.

Organizations need to keep in mind that IRM does not keep Content from being erased, stolen, or captured and
transmitted by malicious programs such as keystroke loggers , Trojan horses, and certain types of spyware.

Using IRM, you can protect Word files, Excel Files and PowerPoint files. As an example, let me show you how you
can use IRM in Microsoft Word.

How to use Information Rights Management in Microsoft Word 2010

Open the Microsoft Word 2010

Click on File tab and then on Info tab.

Then click on Protect Presentation -> Restrict Permission by People -> Restricted Access
 Then the IRM window will appear.
Choose the Yes option and then the Windows Right Management will appear. Choose the relevant option.
After filling your credentials, you should see Select Computer, Type Window.
 You will see the final window soon where you will be asked to Add/Remove Users.
You will now be asked to set the permission on the document.

Click OK and all the settings will be saved.

1. If your staff needs assistance navigating through Office 2010, Advanced Network Consulting can provide IT
support for your business. Centrally located in La Mirada, we are able to onsite service both Los Angeles
and Orange County business within a relatively short time frame. Staff Training for 5-85 employees can be
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Private Sub Workbook_BeforeSave(ByVal SaveAsUI As Boolean, Cancel As Boolean)
Cancel = True 'Cancels any request to save the file
End Sub

Private Sub Workbook_BeforeClose(Cancel As Boolean)

Application.ThisWorkbook.Saved = True 'Tells Excel that the file has already been
saved (this prevents Excel from requesting that you save the file when you close it)
End Sub