Problem with Sorting Data

[reggiebu]

Hi - I have looked over this site and others, and I have not been able to find the answer to this problem.

I am currently using Excel as a database. Here are the basics of my problem.

The first row of cells have names and business location. Below the first business location, if the party has another office, I have put the other office in the cell immediately below the first office.

For example -
Cell 1A - Smith, Bob
Cell 1B - Toledo
Cell 2A - blank
Cell 2B - Dallas

When I sort alphabetically, Smith, Bob and Toledo are sorted, but Dallas ends up at the bottom of the page. Is there a way to link these together?


I need to sort this information alphabetically. When I highlight all of the cells and push the sort button, only the complete entries that have name and business location are alphabetized. Then, the secondary business location appears at the bottom of the page b/c there is not a name in the first cell.

Is there any way that I can only sort by the name alphabetically, but link all of the location information to the one cell so that it will not appear at the bottom of the page?

Also - I need to have a blank line in between my entries. I have been manually inserting the line. Is there any way to do this automatically?
Thank you

[bigwheel]

I know you must have your reasons for the way you store your data but I
believe it's common practice to store one record per row when using Excel as
a database so for your illustration you would have:

Cell A1 - Smith, Bob
Cell B1 - Toledo
Cell C1 - blank
Cell D1 - Dallas

When sorted, all elements would remain together.

Is the reason for a blank row to show the start and finish of each record?
If you store the data as above, you can shade alternate rows if desired

HTH

[Ray A]

Hi Reggie,
To solve the sorting problem you will have to fill in the blanks. Assuming
data to row 100, highlight A1 to A100 press F5 and click special then check
blanks. Type +A1 and press Ctrl & Enter. Now you can sort with your desired
results.
"reggiebu" wrote:

>
> Hi - I have looked over this site and others, and I have not been able
> to find the answer to this problem.
>
> I am currently using Excel as a database. Here are the basics of my
> problem.
>
> The first row of cells have names and business location. Below the
> first business location, if the party has another office, I have put
> the other office in the cell immediately below the first office.
>
> For example -
> Cell 1A - Smith, Bob
> Cell 1B - Toledo
> Cell 2A - blank
> Cell 2B - Dallas
>
> When I sort alphabetically, Smith, Bob and Toledo are sorted, but
> Dallas ends up at the bottom of the page. Is there a way to link these
> together?
>
>
> I need to sort this information alphabetically. When I highlight all
> of the cells and push the sort button, only the complete entries that
> have name and business location are alphabetized. Then, the secondary
> business location appears at the bottom of the page b/c there is not a
> name in the first cell.
>
> Is there any way that I can only sort by the name alphabetically, but
> link all of the location information to the one cell so that it will
> not appear at the bottom of the page?
>
> Also - I need to have a blank line in between my entries. I have been
> manually inserting the line. Is there any way to do this
> automatically?
> Thank you
>
>
> --
> reggiebu
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>