Excel 2003: Sort range of cells starting at 3rd character

[funnybroad]

Is there an easy way to sort a range of cells alphabetically, only begin the
sort at the 3rd position instead of the 1st? I want to do this without
creating an additional column in the spreadsheet which parses out every thing
in every cell and then sorts by that column.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

You may want to also post this in the Excel group, link below
and describe the type of data that is in the sheet and the goal
you're trying to achieve (links below).

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Is there an easy way to sort a range of cells alphabetically, only begin the
sort at the 3rd position instead of the 1st? I want to do this without
creating an additional column in the spreadsheet which parses out every thing
in every cell and then sorts by that column. >>
--
LLet us know if this has helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP
*courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends8

A. Specific newsgroup/discussion group mentioned in this message:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.excel
or via browser:
http://microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/?dg=microsoft.public.excel


B. MS Office Community discussion/newsgroups via Web Browser
http://microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx
or
Microsoft hosted newsgroups via Outlook Express/newsreader
news://msnews.microsoft.com

 

[Stan Kay]

I am not sure that I understand your question but THINK you have a problem
like this:-


Colour Number Price
Green 10 3
Black 15 4
Orange 2 1
Purple 18 2


and you want to sort the array by the third column and not by the first
column. If this is the case then do the following:-

1. Click in the top left cell with left mouse button and keep it pressed
2. Now drag the mouse to the right bottom and let go of the left mouse
button
3. The whole array should now be highlighted.
4. In the Toolbar select "Data" and then "Sort"
5. Now change the "Sort by" Choice from "Colour" to "Price" (i.e.the
third column) and press "OK". You will get the array sorted by the data in
the third column, thus:-

Colour Number Price
Orange 2 1
Purple 18 2
Colour 10 3
Colour 15 4



I hope I have interpreted you problem correctly.

Regards,

Stan

 

[Keme]

Is there an easy way to sort a range of cells alphabetically, only begin the
sort at the 3rd position instead of the 1st? I want to do this without
creating an additional column in the spreadsheet which parses out every thing
in every cell and then sorts by that column.

As far as I can see, you can't do that. Any particular reason why you
don't want to split up the data? (You can always hide the extra column,
and still use it as a sorting key.)