Tools for Information Literacy

Sorting practice

---

According to Microsoft

Sorting data is an integral part of data analysis. ... Sorting data helps you quickly visualize and understand your data better, organize and find the data that you want, and ultimately make more effective decisions.

Still using your downloaded workbook ...

Do a single level sort

1. Sort the data rows on the 13-sort NC ZIP codes worksheet by ZIP Code.
2. Have the sort display from smallest to the largest.

single level sort multi-level sort

back to top

Do a multi-level sort

1. Sort the data rows on the 14-sort state, then year worksheet
2. first by State alphabetically (from A to Z),
3. and then by Year completed from SMALLEST to largest.

The key here is to add a second sort to the dialog box. Don't do a single level sort twice.

It will sort first by the state column, and then, when it finds a duplicate value in the state column, it will sort the duplicate state values by the year in which they were completed before going on to the subsequent state value.

single level sort multi-level sort

back to top