How Do I Do A Custom Sort

[Dazzawm]

I want to sort a file by a particular column first. I need it to be sorted with a particular word first but that word may be anywhere within the cell.

Obviously the normal sort would do it by the first letter of the first word in the cell either A-Z or Z-A. But I need it to look for a particular word in the cell and have that first. Is it possible?

 

[BenMiller]

If you don't want to use VBA, you'll have to create a new (hidden) column extracting the data and then sorting by that column. Are you opposed to this?
The word within the cell that you want to sort by - is it then just a regular alphabetical sort, or a custom sort order (e.g. days of the week)?

 

[Dazzawm]

If there is a vba code that I can use then I would be happy with that, I can adapt it to use on different files then. Would you know how to write it? It needs to highlight the whole sheet and sort by column C first A-Z then column AD A-Z looking for the word 'leads' first. Thanks. (There is a header column in row 1)

 

[BenMiller]

So any cell with leads in it goes first? Any particular order within that? Or it's just leads and no leads?
I don't know anything about VBA, but I can write you a one-column formula to sort by if you're interested.

 

[Dazzawm]

VBA To Do A Custom Sort

There are several columns either side that would need including so sorting by the single column would be no good, thanks. It goes from A right over to about AJ.

 

[BenMiller]

Re: VBA To Do A Custom Sort

I wasn't clear enough. You'll sort all your data; you'll just have one extra column which you can hide.
To be clear, you want to first sort on column C, regular A-Z (nothing to do with "leads"). Then second-level sorting on column AD, anything with "leads" contained in it comes first. Is that right? Two levels of sorting?

 

[Dazzawm]

Re: VBA To Do A Custom Sort

Yes please as long as it takes all the other columns with it in the sort. If you need a helper column its probably better if column AL is used beacuse I dont want columns inserted etc amongst the other columns.

 

[BenMiller]

Re: VBA To Do A Custom Sort

Ok, so put this in cell AL2:

=--ISNUMBER(FIND("leads",AD2))

and drag down until the bottom of your data.

Then sort on column C alphabetically, and then on column AL on values, largest to smallest.

Then highlight column AL, right-click>Hide.

 

[Dazzawm]

Re: VBA To Do A Custom Sort

Thanks but they all return zero?

 

[BenMiller]

Re: VBA To Do A Custom Sort

Impossible, unless none of the cells actually contain the word "leads". Are you sure you have the ranges correct?