Custom sort list question

H

Hyun Yu

I have a table with the following columns: Vendor, Component, Purchase
Date, Price.

All entries in the Component column are in one of the following five groups:
"Processor", "Memory", "Video Card", "Hard Drive", and "Power Supply".

What I'd like to do is be able to sort the table by Vendor first, then by
Component, but in the following order for Components: "Processor",
"Memory", "Hard Drive", "Video Card", and then "Power Supply". Obviously
that list is not in alphabetical order. Is it possible to specify a
customized sort list? I've looked in Excel (2003) help, and it mentions
using a custom list, but that only seems to work when the cell being sorted
with the custom list is the first in the "Sort by" dialogue (in my case,
"Vendor").

Thanks for any help.
 
B

Bob Phillips

You have to define the list in Tools>Options>Custom Lists, and then when you
sort, go to Options and select that list.

--

HTH

Bob Phillips
... looking out across Poole Harbour to the Purbecks
(remove nothere from the email address if mailing direct)
 
B

Bernie Deitrick

Hyun,

You're correct, that custom lists can only be used as the first sort key.
You will need to add a helper column with a sort order for the component
column. An easy way is to copy the Component column to the new column, then
do a successive replace to change the component type to numbers for sorting.

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP
 
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