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Google Spreadsheets are an effective way to store and manage data, and have many of the capabilities of popular spreadsheet applications like Microsoft Excel. In addition, Google Spreadsheets make it easy to collaborate with others on the the same documents. Despite their power and flexibility, it's not always intuitive for Excel users to figure out how to do some basic tasks in Google Spreadsheets, such as sorting by multiple columns. Unlike Excel, you can only sort by a single column at a time; this limitation requires you to take a different approach to sorting if you want to organize by multiple columns. Read on to learn how.

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Steps

  1. Sort by Multiple Columns in Google Spreadsheets Step 1.jpg
    1
    Input your data in your spreadsheet.
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  2. Sort by Multiple Columns in Google Spreadsheets Step 2.jpg
    2
    Decide what order you'd like to sort your information. For the purposes of this example, assume we want to to have the people in the list grouped by city, then last name, then first name.
  3. Sort by Multiple Columns in Google Spreadsheets Step 3.jpg
    3
    Sort by the least important, smallest or most narrow grouping in your sort order. In this case, that would be the column with first names. Click on "sort range" then choose if "A-Z" or "Z-A" and press "Sort"
  4. Sort by Multiple Columns in Google Spreadsheets Step 4.jpg
    4
    Sort by the next grouping in your sort order. In this case, that would be the column with last names.
  5. Sort by Multiple Columns in Google Spreadsheets Step 5.jpg
    5
    Continue sorting by increasingly larger or more important groups in your sort order until you have the list organized as you would like.
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In other languages:

Español: Cómo ordenar en varias columnas en las hojas de cálculo de Google, Русский: сортировать по нескольким столбцам в приложении Google Таблицы

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