Sort Features in Google Sheets

Google Sheets is a powerful and versatile spreadsheet application that allows you to organize, analyze, and manipulate data in various ways. One of the most useful features of Google Sheets is the ability to sort data by different criteria, such as alphabetical order, numerical order, date order, or color. Sorting data can help you find patterns, trends, outliers, and insights from your data.

In this article, we will explain how to use the sort features in Google Sheets, including:

How to sort data in ascending or descending order by one or more columns
How to sort data by color or by custom formulas
How to create, save, delete, or share filter views
How to use the SORT function to sort data with a formula

How to Sort Data in Ascending or Descending Order by One or More Columns

To sort data in ascending or descending order by one or more columns, follow these steps:

On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
Highlight the group of cells you’d like to sort. If your sheet includes a header row, freeze the first row1.
Click Data > Sort range.
If your columns have titles, check the box next to Data has header row.
Select the column you’d like to be sorted first and choose a sorting order (A-Z for ascending or Z-A for descending).
To add another sorting rule, click Add another sort column and repeat step 5.
Click Sort.

Alternatively, you can also sort an entire sheet by right-clicking the letter of the column you want to sort by and choosing Sort sheet A-Z or Sort sheet Z-A2.

How to Sort Data by Color or by Custom Formulas

To sort data by color or by custom formulas, follow these steps:

On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
Select a range of cells.
Click Data > Create a filter.
To see filter options, go to the top of the range and click Filter .
Choose one of the following options:
- Sort by color: Choose which text or fill color to filter or sort by. Cells with the color you choose to sort by will move to the top of the range3. You can sort by conditional formatting colors, but not alternating colors4.
- Filter by condition: Choose conditions or write your own custom formulas5. For example, you can use =COUNTIF (data_range, data_range)=1 to find unique values within a data range, or use =OR (REGEXMATCH (data_range, “Good”), REGEXMATCH (data_range, “Great”)) to find text matching “Good” or “Great” within a data range.
To turn the filter off, click Data > Remove filter.

How to Create, Save, Delete, or Share Filter Views

Filter views are a way to save and apply filters without affecting other users’ view of the data. You can create multiple filter views for different purposes and share them with others.

To create a filter view, follow these steps:

On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
Click Data > Filter views > Create new filter view.
A new filter view will open with a gray bar at the top. You can name your filter view by clicking Untitled filter view and typing a new name.
Apply any filters or sorts as you normally would.
To close the filter view, click the X on the right side of the gray bar.

To save a filter view, follow these steps:

On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
Click Data > Filter views and select the filter view you want to save.
Make any changes you want to the filter view.
To save your changes, click Options > Save as filter view.

To delete a filter view, follow these steps:

On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
Click Data > Filter views and select the filter view you want to delete.
Click Options > Delete.

To share a filter view with others, follow these steps:

On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
Click Data > Filter views and select the filter view you want to share.
Click Options > Get link to this view.
Copy and paste the link and send it to others.

How to Use the SORT Function to Sort Data with a Formula

The SORT function is a built-in function that allows you to sort data with a formula instead of using the menu options. The advantage of using the SORT function is that it returns a new sorted range without changing the original data.

The syntax of the SORT function is:

=SORT (range, sort_column, is_ascending, [sort_column2, is_ascending2,…])

where:

range is the data to be sorted.
sort_column is the index of the column in range or a range outside of range containing the values by which to sort.
is_ascending is TRUE or FALSE indicating whether to sort sort_column in ascending order. FALSE sorts in descending order.
sort_column2, is_ascending2,… are optional additional columns and sort order flags beyond the first, in order of precedence.

For example, you can use the following formula to sort the data in A2:D6 by the second column in ascending order and the fourth column in descending order:

=SORT (A2:D6, 2, TRUE, 4, FALSE)

You can also use the SORT function to sort data by color or by custom formulas by using the SORTBY function as a sort_column argument. The SORTBY function sorts a range by one or more sort columns that you create from existing data or formulas.

The syntax of the SORTBY function is:

=SORTBY (range, sort_column1, [is_ascending1,…])

where:

range is the data to be sorted.
sort_column1 is the first column to sort by, either a range reference or an array expression.
is_ascending1 is an optional argument that indicates whether to sort sort_column1 in ascending order. The default value is TRUE. You can specify additional columns and sort order flags as needed.

For example, you can use the following formula to sort the data in A2:D6 by the fill color of column A and then by column B in ascending order:

=SORTBY (A2:D6, A2:A6, FALSE, B2:B6)

You can also use custom formulas as sort columns, such as:

=SORTBY (A2:D6, IF (A2:A6=“Vegetarian”, 1, 0), FALSE)

This formula will sort the data by whether column A contains “Vegetarian” or not.

Note that the SORT and SORTBY functions only work with arrays, so you need to enter them as array formulas by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Enter on your keyboard.

Conclusion

Sorting data in Google Sheets is a useful skill that can help you organize and analyze your data more effectively. You can use the menu options or the SORT function to sort data by different criteria, such as alphabetical order, numerical order, date order, color, or custom formulas. You can also create and share filter views to save and apply filters without affecting other users’ view of the data.

We hope this article has helped you learn how to use the sort features in Google Sheets. If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know in the comments below.

Sort Features in Google Sheets