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How to sort columns in Excel

Sorting Columns in Excel

Microsoft Excel provides a hand and powerful tool to sort data. The default Excel sorting options are setup to sort rows. Let’s say, you want to sort columns in Excel instead of rows i.e. you want to order columns based on data of particular row. This blogs exactly covers the process to sort columns along with Video demonstration.

Sample data to sort

Let’s say, I have a following data in Excel having marks and percentage (in rows) of students (in column).

Sample Excel data for sorting columns
Sample Excel data for sorting columns

Sorting Excel columns based on row data

Let’s say that I want to sort student (column) based on highest to lowest percentage to give rank.

The steps to sort columns of Excel based on row data

Steps to sort above data column wise (student) in descending order of percentage are as follows

Step 1: Select the data you need to get sorted

Step 2: In “Home” Tab, click “Sort & Filter” and select “Custom Sort” to open Sort window

Sorting data in Excel
Sorting data in Excel

Step 3: Click “Options” from Sort Window to open “Sort Options” and select “Sort left to right” option from Sort Options and click Ok.

Step 4: Select Sort by, Sort On and Order as desired. In my case, I wanted to sort by Row 3 (Percentage) values from Largest to Smallest.

Step 5: Click ok to sort data. In my case, sorted students (columns) with highest to smallest percentage (Row 3)

Sorted column of Excel based on Row 3 data
Sorted column of Excel based on Row 3 data

Video Demonstration: Sorting Excel Column

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