(Excel examples for Beginners)
In this end-to-end excel example, you will learn – Excel formula for Beginners – How to Sort by custom list in Excel.
Excel formula for Beginners – How to Sort by custom list in Excel
Generic formula
=SORTBY(rng,MATCH(rng,custom,0))
Explanation
To sort a list in a custom order, you can combine the SORTBY function with the MATCH function. In the example shown, The table is being sorted by the “group” column using in the order shown in cells J5:J7. The formula in D5 is:
=SORTBY(B5:D14,MATCH(D5:D14,custom,0))
where “custom” is the named range J5:J7 that defines desired sort order.
How this formula works
In this example, we are sorting a table with 10 rows and 3 columns. In the range J5:J7 (the named range “custom”), the colors “red”, “blue”, and “green” are listed in the desired sort order. The goal is to sort the table using values in the Group column in this same custom order.
The SORTBY function allows sorting based on one or more “sort by” arrays, as long as dimensions are compatible with the source data. In this case, we can’t use the named range “custom” directly in SORTBY, because it only contains 3 rows while the table contains 10 rows.
However, to create an array with 10 rows that can be used as a “sort by” array, we can use the MATCH function like this:
MATCH(D5:D14,custom,0)
Notice we are passing in the Group values in D5:D14 as lookup values, and using “custom” as the lookup table. The result is an array like this:
{2;1;3;3;2;3;1;2;3;1}
Each value in the array represents the numeric position of given group value in “custom”, so there are 10 rows represented. This array is passed into the SORTBY function as the by_array1 argument. SORTBY sorts the table in the “red”, “blue”, “green” order and returns the result as a spill range starting in cell D5.
Disclaimer: The information and code presented within this recipe/tutorial is only for educational and coaching purposes for beginners and developers. Anyone can practice and apply the recipe/tutorial presented here, but the reader is taking full responsibility for his/her actions. The author (content curator) of this recipe (code / program) has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information was correct at time of publication. The author (content curator) does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from accident, negligence, or any other cause. The information presented here could also be found in public knowledge domains.
Learn by Coding: v-Tutorials on Applied Machine Learning and Data Science for Beginners
Latest end-to-end Learn by Coding Projects (Jupyter Notebooks) in Python and R:
All Notebooks in One Bundle: Data Science Recipes and Examples in Python & R.
End-to-End Python Machine Learning Recipes & Examples.
End-to-End R Machine Learning Recipes & Examples.
Applied Statistics with R for Beginners and Business Professionals
Data Science and Machine Learning Projects in Python: Tabular Data Analytics
Data Science and Machine Learning Projects in R: Tabular Data Analytics
Python Machine Learning & Data Science Recipes: Learn by Coding
R Machine Learning & Data Science Recipes: Learn by Coding
Comparing Different Machine Learning Algorithms in Python for Classification (FREE)
There are 2000+ End-to-End Python & R Notebooks are available to build Professional Portfolio as a Data Scientist and/or Machine Learning Specialist. All Notebooks are only $29.95. We would like to request you to have a look at the website for FREE the end-to-end notebooks, and then decide whether you would like to purchase or not.