How to use SORT and SORTBY Functions in Excel

Did you know you can sort using formulas? Microsoft introduced two dynamic array formulas - SORT and SORTBY - enabling flexible sorting directly in your worksheets. Unlike traditional sorting methods, these formulas allow you to output sorted results anywhere in your workbook, offering unparalleled convenience. With SORT, you can sort data based on specified columns, while SORTBY takes it a step further, sorting based on corresponding arrays. By harnessing the capabilities of these formulas, you can customize sort orders and combine sorting with other functions like FILTER for enhanced data manipulation. Join us as we dive deep into SORT and SORTBY functions, unlocking new possibilities for sorting and filtering data dynamically.

💻 Watch more free popular training tutorials from Simon Sez IT:

🔥Check out our FREE 400+ hour training course playlist here ➡️

💬Stay in touch!

🔔 Subscribe to our channel:

If you enjoyed the video, please give a thumbs up 👍🏽 ;-)

[Luciano_mp]

Thank you for all the great videos. They are very helpful! Deb has a very good teaching talent in my opinion!

[NinjaMasterxxxx]

Can I sort my sheet by the last 2 digits in one column?

[staninjapan]

Thank you.
Either this is not applicable to desktop Excel from around 2018 or I have not understood.
Though this and similar videos show how to do this with a few columns, I have only two to which I am trying to apply this, though there are more active columns in the sheet.
Alas...
Thank you anyway.

In case anyone seeing this knows what to do and has five minutes to tell me, this is my situation...
I am asking my English students to give me advice on the most important items for an emergency bag.


Column A - item names
Column B - the total number of votes the item gets from a class of six groups of students
Columns C to H - the number of votes from members of each of six groups
Column B is a SUM of Columns C to H.
Column J - attempting to use this sort function on columns A and B in order to show realtime results as I enter the students' votes in each group's columns.

Goal - to have a top 5 summary of items (with or without numbers of votes)

Many thanks.