Sorting while grouping 3 rows together...

[steve]

i need to keep three rows together while i sort by column. so it will be
groups of three.

i thought to copy the name down three times, but is there a way i can
automate this? this is a sheet that gets updated everyday.

thank you

[gazornenplat]

Might be just me, but I don't quite understand what you want here. Could you give a simple example?

Gaz

[Dave Peterson]

I assumed headers in row 1 and the name in column A.

I inserted a new column A (moving the name to column B).

I put =b2 in A2.

Then I put =IF(MOD(ROW(),3)=2,B3,A2&"x")
in B3 and dragged down.

I started with names like:
Name
aaa
aaa
aaa
eee
eee
eee
bbb
bbb
bbb
ccc
ccc
ccc

My new columns A:B looked like
Key Name
aaa aaa
aaax aaa
aaaxx aaa
eee eee
eeex eee
eeexx eee
bbb bbb
bbbx bbb
bbbxx bbb
ccc ccc
cccx ccc
cccxx ccc

Then I converted column A to values (edit|copy, edit|paste special|values).

Then sorted by that helper column.

When I was done, I deleted column A.


steve wrote:
>
> i need to keep three rows together while i sort by column. so it will be
> groups of three.
>
> i thought to copy the name down three times, but is there a way i can
> automate this? this is a sheet that gets updated everyday.
>
> thank you

--

Dave Peterson

[Jay]

> i need to keep three rows together while i sort by column. so it will
> be groups of three.
>
> i thought to copy the name down three times, but is there a way i can
> automate this? this is a sheet that gets updated everyday.

One way is to use a helper column.

I'm supposing that column A has the field to be sorted, and you want to
sort by the first of the three values.

In the helper column, put this in row 1:
=A1
Put the identical formula in rows 2 and 3.

Select the three cells and extend down for the length of the list.

Then select the whole table and sort by the helper column.

[steve]

right, that's what i did. The problem i am running into is that there are
blank cells for entries that have not been entered yet. so when i sort, the
equations like =A1 get messed up. here is what it looks like

Project Name Project status Salesman Date

walmart estimate km 6/21
detail
barlist

estimate, detail, barlist are seperate cells, but when i sort by project
name, i need these three rows to be considered one row.

"Jay" wrote:

> > i need to keep three rows together while i sort by column. so it will
> > be groups of three.
> >
> > i thought to copy the name down three times, but is there a way i can
> > automate this? this is a sheet that gets updated everyday.
>
> One way is to use a helper column.
>
> I'm supposing that column A has the field to be sorted, and you want to
> sort by the first of the three values.
>
> In the helper column, put this in row 1:
> =A1
> Put the identical formula in rows 2 and 3.
>
> Select the three cells and extend down for the length of the list.
>
> Then select the whole table and sort by the helper column.
>

[Jay]

=?Utf-8?B?c3RldmU=?= wrote:

> right, that's what i did. The problem i am running into is that there
> are blank cells for entries that have not been entered yet. so when i
> sort, the equations like =A1 get messed up. here is what it looks
> like
>
> Project Name Project status Salesman
> Date
>
> walmart estimate km
> 6/21
> detail
> barlist
>
> estimate, detail, barlist are seperate cells, but when i sort by
> project name, i need these three rows to be considered one row.

The idea is to sort by the helper column.

Below is an example. Save it in a file with the ".csv" extension.

Double-clicking the csv file should open it in Excel.

Select everything and sort bon the Helper column.

--------------------- cut here ------------------------
Project Name,Project status,Salesman,Date,Helper
walmart,estimate,km,6/21,=A2
,detail,,,=A2
,barlist,,,=A2
sears,estimate,ab,2/13,=A5
,detail,cd,3/22,=A5
,cancelled,tr,4/11,=A5
penney,estimate,mi,6/16,=A8
,detail,,,=A8
,barlist,,,=A8