Sorting data helps to arrange work and present it in a nice and clean way. There many different ways that you can sort data. But in this article we will go through how you can do it by date.
It is more of a bonus when you know how to sort data by date as you can be able to work through large data sets without any trouble. Luckily, Excel makes it easier for you to sort data out using certain in-built commands and features. Here we discuss the different steps and methods you can use to sort in Excel by date. Here we go.
How to sort dates in Excel
1. In an open Excel worksheet, go to the column that contains the unsorted dates.
2. Highlight the dates you wish to sort. Using the Sort & Filter feature.
3. Click on the Home tab of the main menu ribbon and go to the Editing group.
4. In the Formats group, click on the option Sort & Filter, and click the drop-down arrow to display an options list.
5. Select the sort option you wish to use
6. You will get a warning through the Sort Warning dialog box. Here, make sure you leave the default Expand the selection option checked.
7. Click on the Sort button to apply your changes.
8. Alternatively, instead of going through all this process, you can right-click to select Sort and still choose the order that works best for you. You can also access Sort & Filter by going to the Data tab.
Use Custom sort
Data that has headings can easily be used by using these headings as your categories to sort the entries easily.
1. In an open Excel worksheet, highlight the data as shown below.
2. Click on the Home tab of the main menu ribbon.
3. In the Formats group, click on the option Sort & Filter and select Custom Sort.
4. Before sorting, tick the box that is labelled my data has headers.
5. Next to the Sort by field, click on the arrow and select the Dates option as shown in the screenshot below.
6. Next to the Order field, choose any available option as illustrated below
7. Click the OK button to apply your changes.
Download Practice Sheet
Sort by date in Excel practice sheet
How to sort dates in Excel by month and year
For instance, you may want to arrange dates for a birthday calendar. Here, you will have to sort your data by month and date. You will also apply a formula that will pull months and dates from the dates of birth within your data.
You will use the formula =TEXT (cell, “mm.dd”)
You can also sort data by year in Excel by using the Year function. You will apply the formula =YEAR (serial_number)
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