Sort By One Column Excel Formula

Notice data is sorted in ascending order (A-Z) by default. With this formula in F5, the SORT function outputs the sorted array in F5:H14.

Ascending vs. Descending

Data is sorted in ascending order (A-Z) by default. This behavior is controlled by an optional third argument, sort_order. The default value for sort_order is 1, so both formulas below return the same result as shown in the example above: To sort in descending (Z-A) order, set sort_order to -1. In the example below, we are sorting data in descending order by score, which is the second column:

Dave Bruns

Hi - I’m Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.