Alphabetical Order

[Ishraq]

Hi
Does anyone know how to sort data (names in particular) in
Alphabetical order with the Last names? I have both the
first and last name in the same cell. Thanks

 

[Anders S]

Hi,

As far as I know there is no way to sort cells other than by the beginning of
the cell values.

You will have to split the names.

Also, what is a first and last name? Just some examples to show:

Vincent van Gogh
Jerry Lee Lewis
Bill Gates
Bill Gates III
Bill H. Gates III
William H. Gates III
William Henry Gates III

Regards
Anders Silvén

 

[Biff]

Hi Ishraq,

Anders makes an excellent point! But if the list of names
consists of just 2 words, first name last name, you could
use the text to columns feature to seperate the two names
then sort both columns on the last name. Then you could
rejoin the seperated names using a formula like:

=A1&" "&B1

Then delete the columns that have the seperated names.
This may sound like an awful lot of work but it really
isn't. Only takes a couple of minutes!

Biff

 

[CLR]

Biff's solution really is quick and easy after you've done it a few times,
but if it's the kind of thing where you have to do it frequently, you could
just record a Macro to do it at the touch of a button......

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

 

[Ken Wright]

You can just use a helper column. Assuming all your names consist of just two names, ie a first
and a last:-

With your data in say Col A starting A1, in B1 put the following formula and copy down:-

=MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1,LEN(A1))

Then just select Col A and B and sort on B, and then delete the data in B.

 

[David McRitchie]

I would use a macro to separate the lastname from the other name(s).
See SepLastTerm macro in
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/join.htm#seplastterm

If you do have Sr., Jr, II, III etc, for your data you might want to take
a look at Chip Pearson's page look for lastnames in
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/topic.htm