How can I sort "oldest to newest?"

[Laurel]

I have a little spread shee with a column called "date" that contains dates
in a "*3/14/2001" format. That's what I see when I highlight all its cells
and click "format cells." I'm accustomed to sorting by clicking on the
column header and then the "sort xxx to xxx" icon. Five minutes ago I did
this and was offered "sort oldest to newest" and "sort newest to oldest"
menu items. I don't know exactly what I did after that, but now when I try
to do the same thing I'm only offered "sort A to Z" and "Sort Z to A." This
doesn't work out right, of course. What's going on?

TIA
LAS

 

[Luke M]

Sorting "A to Z" means to sort in ascending order. As dates increase in value
as time goes on, sorting A to Z would place your dates in oldest to newest
order. Some sorting differences may occur based on whether you have header
rows selected, or how much data you have selected before attempting your sort.

 

[Laurel]

I'm afraid I must not have made myself clear. I understand that "a to z"
isn't good for sorting dates. My problem is that once, and only once, I saw
"oldest to newest" and "newest to oldest" as sort menu options. But never
again. How can I get the menu options back? I know I saw them, because I
was so pleased that Excel understood that "a to z" wouldn't work for dates.

 

[Gord Dibben]

If your column of dates are "real" dates Excel will offer the "oldest to
newest" and "newest to oldest".

Have you somehow re-formatted the dates to text?


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Laurel]

If your column of dates are "real" dates Excel will offer the "oldest to
newest" and "newest to oldest".

Have you somehow re-formatted the dates to text?

If I highlight all the date cells (not the header) and right click and click
Format Cells, it highlights Category = Date and Type = *3/14/2001

BUT Aha! With the dates selected, I got the "oldest to newest". Then a
dialogue box asking me if I wanted to expand the selection or not. I did,
and it sorted everything correctly!

I have lived in fear for years because for a long time I didn't realize that
if I didn't click on the header before I sorted but clicked on the "A B C"
column header, it would just sort the column and screw everything up. I
guess I've found an exception to "click on the header."

 

[Gord Dibben]

Do not always rely upon Excel to make the correct choice when "expanding the
selection"

If you had a blank column, it would stop at the blank column.

Always select the full range of data to sort.

You can select the entire columns then Data>Sort.

Select "sort by" column.

If it is the date column Excel will give you the "oldest to newest"

If "sort by" is some non-date column you will not see "oldest to newest"\


Gord