Sorting Excel 203

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JoseyWales
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Sorting Excel 203

Post by JoseyWales »

Some times when I sort excel and I mean a large file I have to put something in each empty cell.
There is a way to do this by putting something in each cell. I have forgotting how to do this by the
menu.
Josey Wales

Thanks for the help. I used to do this very easy but I have forgotting how.
JoseyWales
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Re: Sorting Excel 203

Post by JoseyWales »

Any body known excel
Bear
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Re: Sorting Excel 203

Post by Bear »

Josey...I was not aware that you could "sort" anything in Excel. Access can be sorted.
If you want to fill every cell in Excel you would go to the "EDIT' function in the tool bar and it will allow you to fill the columns, rows or cells either up, down, left or right, but you must select whether you want to fill the column, row or cell.

Hope this helps.

Take care all

Dennis
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haklesup
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Re: Sorting Excel 203

Post by haklesup »

Sorting in excel should be easy and you don't have to have data in every cell.

If the table is relatively full (no completely empty rows or columns) then you can just highlight any cell in the table and choose sort from the Data Menu. If there are some empty rows , columns or large empty areas of cells, then you need to highlight the entire table before selecting Sort from the data menu.

Maybe you want to try it on some smaller tables to get the hang of it. If sorting scrambles your data, just undo (Ctrl-Z) or close but don't save the file, when you reopen it should be restored.

THere are ways to sort columns by adding button controls to a cell at the top of the column but thats for a table that frequently gets sorted or filtered.

If you feel you need to fill the empty cells with something, I find it easiest to just use copy and paste a bunch of times, autofill can be unexpected sometimes and not looking at every cell you fill could accidently lead to data overwriting

Did you consult the Excel Help menu?
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CeaSaR
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Re: Sorting Excel 203

Post by CeaSaR »

Looking at Excel 2003 right now and you can find "sort" in the HELP->Search menu. I looked for AutoFill, but no real luck.
Any idea what the actual name of the command is? Maybe just a hint so we can narrow it down?

CeaSaR
Hey, what do I know?
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kheston
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Re: Sorting Excel 203

Post by kheston »

Josey,

Not sure if it's exactly the answer you want, but I often run into situations where I need to establish a row sort order in Excel.

In one of your columns, place the number 1 in row 1. In row 2 of the same column, type =1+ and click on the cell you placed the number 1 in. Starting with the cell in row 2, highlight the number of cells below it that you wish to add a value to and press Ctrl+d or choose "Fill Down" from the edit menu. You should now have incrementing numbers for each of the number of cells you highlighted. That is, row three should have a 3, row four a 4, etc.

Now here's the non-intuitive part. If you were to sort this column now, the numbering wouldn't stick because the calculated values are based on cells relative to position. So, the trick is to copy the entire column and use "Paste Special->Values" from the edit menu to paste to actual values over the formulas. You should now have a hard value for every row you highlighted.

Hereafter, if you use the standard sort function to sort by this row, Excel will act accordingly. I use this method when I have a list of row records that aren't sorted but for which I need to remember the original order they were in.

Hope this helps.
Kurt - SF Bay
JoseyWales
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Re: Sorting Excel 203

Post by JoseyWales »

If a column has nothing in it and you pick a column from the left of it. It won't sort to the right
of the empty column. So here is what you do.

Go to edit and click on "go to" then click on "special" then click on"blanks".

Now go back to edit and click on "replace" and then put any charcter in the row marked
"replace with" and then on the bottom click "repace all"

DONE
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