Automatic Sorting

**SumTuck** · 06-21-2012, 05:25 PM

Hi All,

Thank you in advance for all the great tips. This site is amazing.

I have a column where I created a drop list with the options recent, completed, and also a blank field option. I need excel to automatically sort this. When recent is selected that row moves to the top, when completed is selected it moves to the bottm, and the blank field goes in the middle. What is the best way to achieve this goal?

Thanks!

Summer

**FDibbins** · 06-21-2012, 06:09 PM

if you dont mind a helper column, you could use a formula (or an entry) to have all "recent" marked as 1, all "blank" ad 2 and all "complete" as 3. then sort based on that column

with your values in A1 downwards, use this formula in the helper, copied down...

=IF(A1="recent",1,IF(A1="Complete",2,3))

let me know how this works for you?

**SumTuck** · 06-22-2012, 10:08 AM

Hi FDibbins,

Thank you for the fast response. I am not sure I follow what you are suggesting. By giving them numerical value, they will sort automatically and in order as we use that column? There will be multiple times the value will be the same, for example right now I already have 5 completed projects on the spreadsheet, multiple recent projects, and several projects in limbo which we leave that column blank. Will excel get confused?

Thanks!

Summer

**FDibbins** · 06-22-2012, 06:58 PM

aahh sorry, missed the "automatic" part, sorry. no this wont sort automatically, at least not on its own. you could make up a small macro that will do this for you tho, and then add a button to click-to-sort based on the helper column