How to save a sort order?

[JenniferMurphy]

Is there any way to "save" a sort order involving multiple columns? For example, suppose I have a table containing the medal count for each country in the Olympics. The table has 5 columns: Country, Gold, Silver, Bronze, & Total.

Olympic Medals.xlsx
	E	F	G	H	I
5	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
6	Austria	4	5	4	13
7	Norway	5	3	4	12
8	Canada	1	4	7	12
9	ROC	2	3	6	11
10	United States	4	5	1	10
11	Germany	6	3	0	9
12	Netherlands	4	3	1	8
13	Italy	2	4	2	8
14	Sweden	4	1	2	7
15	Japan	1	2	4	7
20220211 (2)

The normal sort order involves all 4 columns:

If I want to sort it some other way (alphabetically by country, by gold medals only, etc.), it is a royal pain to get it back to the normal (original) order.

Is there any way I can "save" that order under a name that I can get by simply choosing that name?

This page seems to indicate that there is not a way to save a sort. It offers a kludgy work-around involving another column in the table:

Sort saving workaround

This is my implementation of this workaround. It works, but is not pretty.

Olympic Medals.xlsx
	E	F	G	H	I	J
5	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	Sort
6	Austria	4	5	4	13	013 04 05 04
7	Norway	5	3	4	12	012 05 03 04
8	Canada	1	4	7	12	012 01 04 07
9	ROC	2	3	6	11	011 02 03 06
10	United States	4	5	1	10	010 04 05 01
11	Germany	6	3	0	9	009 06 03 00
12	Netherlands	4	3	1	8	008 04 03 01
13	Italy	2	4	2	8	008 02 04 02
14	Sweden	4	1	2	7	007 04 01 02
15	Japan	1	2	4	7	007 01 02 04
20220211 (2)

Cell Formulas
Range	Formula
J6:J15	J6	=TEXT([@Total],"000") & TEXT([@Gold]," 00") & TEXT([@Silver]," 00") & TEXT([@Bronze]," 00")

 

[alansidman]

Jennifer
Don't hate me for this. But with Power Query you can add an index column as follows

let
    Source = Excel.CurrentWorkbook(){[Name="Table3"]}[Content],
    #"Added Index" = Table.AddIndexColumn(Source, "Index", 0, 1, Int64.Type),
    #"Sorted Rows" = Table.Sort(#"Added Index",{{"Country", Order.Ascending}})
in
    #"Sorted Rows"

Book1
	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L
1	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total		Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	Index
2	Austria	4	5	4	13		Austria	4	5	4	13	0
3	Norway	5	3	4	12		Canada	1	4	7	12	2
4	Canada	1	4	7	12		Germany	6	3	0	9	5
5	ROC	2	3	6	11		Italy	2	4	2	8	7
6	United States	4	5	1	10		Japan	1	2	4	7	9
7	Germany	6	3	0	9		Netherlands	4	3	1	8	6
8	Netherlands	4	3	1	8		Norway	5	3	4	12	1
9	Italy	2	4	2	8		ROC	2	3	6	11	3
10	Sweden	4	1	2	7		Sweden	4	1	2	7	8
11	Japan	1	2	4	7		United States	4	5	1	10	4
Sheet2

Once you bring the data back to Native Excel, you can then filter on any field and can bring the data back to the original form by sorting on the index column.

 

[JenniferMurphy]

Jennifer
Don't hate me for this. But with Power Query you can add an index column as follows

I don't hate you. I hate myself for being too lazy to study up on Power Query after you have taken the time to tell me how many problems it solves. ?????

I guess I have procrastinated long enough. Time to get serious. Thanks