Extensive Sort by text

[nwhittle]

I have a spreadsheet that I have to sort by rep name in a certain order so when I subtotal the totals will be in the order I need. I've read about the vlookup, but I'm just not getting how it will work, it seems like from what I read it will put a number by the other columns 1,2,3 etc. but I just am not getting a feel for how to write it. I have a separate worksheet with the names in the order I need. In the main worksheet I have colums like this

Accnt ID Acnt Name First Rep Name Firm Name Value

I need to sort on First Rep Name, but not necessarily in alphabetical order.

Can any one explain the vlookup or I've even read to use match command. I put my list in order in another worksheet in column a

Anita DeVore
Aracelis Bell
Laura Asagari
Tammy Kosa
Julie Kuntz
Myra Reinhardt
etc. for several more names

Any help would be appreciated. I guess I'm dense until I see it in action once.

Thanks

 

[West Man]

You could use vlookup, but Match would be slightly easier. Place your list of names in the order in which you want them to appear in a different location (Sheet2 A2:A6 in this example). Then in an unused column in your data to be sorted enter the formula =MATCH(XX,Sheet2!A$2:A$6) where xx is the name to be matched. Copy the formula down to the end of the data. This will give you a sort order column.

 

[nwhittle]

You could use vlookup, but Match would be slightly easier. Place your list of names in the order in which you want them to appear in a different location (Sheet2 A2:A6 in this example). Then in an unused column in your data to be sorted enter the formula =MATCH(XX,Sheet2!A$2:A$6) where xx is the name to be matched. Copy the formula down to the end of the data. This will give you a sort order column.

Thank you so much for the quick and wonderfully articulated solution to my problem. I love it and I'm done.

 

[West Man]

Happy to have helped. Thanks for the feedback