Data / Sort not working ????

[FISH]

Hello all,

I'm basically a newbie to Excel and only create very basic spreadsheets with
basic function.

(I'm using Excel 2002)

I've creating a simple spreadsheet to keep track of finances. I'm having
problems with the "Data/Sort" function.

Not sure the best way to explain my satiation so I've pasted an example:


Customer Credits Debts Balance
Paul $200 $150 $50
Billy $200 $151 $50
John $200 $152 $48
Shawn $200 $152 $48
George $200 $155 $45
Aaron $200 $155 $45
Adam $200 $156 $44
Dave $200 $162 $38
Joe $200 $178 $22
AJ $200 $179 $21


I have another area of my spreadsheet that totals up the credits and debts.
So for example if the total credits for Paul are found in the cell B12, I've
entered =B12 into Paul's credit cell on this list. I've done this for each
credit and debt for each customer. The problem is when I try and sort the
data, the functions in some of these cells change and the data isn't sorted
properly. After I try and "data" / "sort" by the balance column it changes
(for example) Paul's credit cell to include the function =B17 (instead of
=B12 as I entered it originally)


Any idea why this "sort" function is acting strange??


Thanks...

 

[Debra Dalgleish]

Instead of a link to the cells, perhaps you could use a VLookup formula,
e.g.:
=VLOOKUP(I2,$A$2:$B$11,2,FALSE)

This might sort with better results.

There are instructions for VLookup in Excel's Help, and here:

http://www.contextures.com/xlFunctions02.html