Sorting in multiple columns

Hi all,
Is there a way to sort data in excel so if there's something like this:

a a a
a b b
a b c
b b c
c c c

it can turn into this with all the similar data grouped to show how many of
each type are in each column without it being mashed together?:

a a a
a
a

b b b
b
b

c c c
c
c

Thanks, I wasn't sure how else to put it without an illustration!

You provided an illustration but your post is still confusing. Are you
talking about three columns? Three a's mean that we have the same value
in all three columns? In your example there is no row with 3 b's. Do
you want all other information discarded?

Please be more specific.

Kostis Vezerides

I am talking about 3 columns, although the spreadsheet I want to organize has
31, and 3 a's does mean the same value over all the columns. What this
actually is is I've done a sort of words in 31 chapters, all lined up, and I
want to know how many of each word are in a chapter. The problem is that
there aren't the same number of a specific word in each chapter, so I want to
separate them so I can see how many of each are a specific chapter.
Hope that helps.

"vezerid" wrote:

> You provided an illustration but your post is still confusing. Are you
> talking about three columns? Three a's mean that we have the same value
> in all three columns? In your example there is no row with 3 b's. Do
> you want all other information discarded?
>
> Please be more specific.
>
> Kostis Vezerides
>
>