sorting problem with text and dates

[jyeat]

I am trying to sort all kinds of data but am stuck as to how to do this. I have three main things i'm trying to accomplish.

1. sort the text files (cable type in my particular situation) by name then date (monthly)
2. count the number of times per month the cable appears.
3. apply the number per month in another table within the same worksheet


i have everything sorted by name and dates, and i can count manually how many times this occurs per month and then take that number and plug it in my other table but that isn't the point of excel! lol.. i didn't know if anyone knew a more efficient way around this

also, my cable type is obviously is entered in as text in excel but my date is also entered as text. I didn't know if it'd be best to change that to the numerical symbol or not

thanks so much!!

 

[Norie]

Why not use Data>Pivot Table...?

As for the date being entered as text, if that's the case then you won't get a proper chronological sort.