question on sorting by last name

[Guest]

I have a spreadsheet that has over 5,000 rows and somehow the sort order was
removed I need it to sort by column f which is Month/Year and then by column
A which is labeled Member Name. The member name column has first and last
name and has always been sorted by last name, but for some reason now is
sorted by month/year correctly, but by first name instead of last name. How
can I make this change and also add the blank lines back between the
Month/years going down the spreadsheet. there were also always blank lines
splitting up for instance May-03 from June-03 ect. and now all the blanks are
gone and all run together. No idea what happened to this spreadsheet. Any
help will be appreciated.

 

[Guest]

Hi Deb-

Hate to be the "bad guy" here, but it sounds like there are a few obstacles
that will prevent what you want to do unless there is some code written for
the file that you may not know of. Excel's standard features will not provide
for sorting by 'last name' if it's stored in the same cell as and preceded by
'first name'.

Is there anyone who is more technically familiar with the file who may be
able to give you more information?

If not, check these 2 things while the file is open:

1) Go to Tools>Macro>Macros. Make sure "All Open Workbooks" is set in the
Macros In list and make a note of any macro names listed in the large list
box.

2) Go to Tools>Options>Custom Lists and make a note of anything listed there
other than the 2 for weekdays & the 2 for months

Post back with whatever you find so that there is a little more to go on. |:>)

 

[2rrs]

You can use something like this to change the 1st/last name order:

=RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-FIND(" ",A1))&", "&LEFT(A1,FIND(" ",A1)-1)

Perhaps someone else can assist with the space issue.