TIP: Sorting with grouped rows

Hi Community,

I have been getting rather frustrated by this 'minor' issue.
When working on a sheet with some rows grouped and others not grouped, sometimes when sorting the columns, the grouped rows don't maintain their grouped status if a particular sort is performed.

See the attached workbook, it contains two sheets with the same data with one minor (turns out to be fundamental) difference, wonderfully colour coded to boot.

Sheet 3 will maintain grouped rows when applying a sort to columns A or B, where sheet 2 will not.
To see this, on Sheet 2, sort Column B, Z > A and then Column A, A > Z. All the rows will completely lose their grouping and will be impossible to set straight unless you 'Undo'.
Sheet 3 however, sort all you like and the groups will maintain where set.

In sheet 3, I have added in 4 additional rows. (Squished the first two small to not visually impact the sheet too much)
One is using the value '-99' in the sortable columns, and grouped with a blank row beneath.
Another is using the value 'zzz', again with a blank grouped row beneath.
This technique ensures that the first row has a grouping when applying a sort to the columns. (Make sure '-99' is the LOWEST value and 'zzz' is the HIGHEST value in your range)

Regardless of how big your data is and you can't maintain the grouping of rows, ensure the First row to be sorted is grouped.

Hope this helps someone and saves time and a few more questions like this being asked.

If there is a 'proper' technique that I have completely bypassed, let me know

You have marked this thread as solved - is it?

OK - I've moved the thread to the correct forum section.

Don't post this sort of thing in the main areas, please, or they will be treated as questions.

Thanks for the contribution.