Move a column in a large numbers sheet

Hi Tom,

After reading you post, I constructed a fairly simple table with four columns and more than 20,000 rows. I entered the Column letter into row 1 (a header row), then filled all the non-header rows in columns B, C and D with this formula (entered in C2, filled left and right into B2 and D2, then filled down the the then current last row of the table (around 10 or 20), then added rows to the table (and filled the formula into the added rows) by dragging down the Row control handle for a few minutes until the row number reached the number shown in the image below:

The formula, entered in C2, is: REPT(C$1,MOD(ROW(cell),6)+1)

Shotly after Numbers finished filling the fromula into all 20,000+ rows and three columns, ten calculated and showed the results. I clcked the column reference tab for column C to select that column, waited a few seconds, then clicked and held on the same column until it 'rose' from the sheet, then dragged column C left, and dropped it to the left of column B, and dropped it there.

Note that the calculations continued to reference the cell at the top of the column (now column B).

i then repeated the steps with column D, moving it two columns to the left to become the new column B, pushing the original column C back to the column C location and the original column B into the column D location, again in a matter of a few seconds.

Remembering that you had said your table had nine columns, I added a column to the table, scrolled to the top of the table, entered an E in row 1, then continued to add columns until I reached a total of 15 (A to M), with all cells except the ones in Row 1 and Column A containing the formula shown above. Filling the new cells and completing the calculations took about half a minute.

Finally, I again selected column C, clicked a second time and held on its column reference tab, then when it lifted, dragged it right and dropped it between columns J and K. Columnd D to J shifted left, and column C became the new column J, as seen below. The column move was quite smooth, and took a minimal amount of computer time to complete.

Numbers 3.6.2, OS X 10.11.6

Regards,

Barry

It works fine

What is the "it" the works fine?

BTW, unlike in other spreadsheet apps, Number sheets don't have columns and rows. Sheets have a canvas on which you can place tables, charts, shapes and other objects. Only tables have columns and rows.

SG

Hi Tom,

Like Barry, I tested a very long table (19,384 rows).

I am using Numbers version 6.0 under macOS High Sierra 10.13.6

I clicked and held on the column reference label for column B (Antelopes) and had to wait for a second or two before it "lifted" from the page. Then I dragged to the right and had to wait a second or two before I saw the vertical blue line showing that I could drop.

Antelopes are now in Column D.

Column A (a Header Column) contains this formula in A2 (and filled down) =SUM(2:2)

That should not change when moving columns.

If you have 'volatile' functions, the process could be delayed as Numbers recalculates.

See this advice from SG about 'volatile' functions: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7952679

"Some 'volatile' functions, such as RAND and RANDBETWEEN and OFFSET and others, recalculate whenever a change is made."

Regards,

Ian.

19,281 rows

That's a lot of rows! Unlike Excel (and perhaps some of its clones), Numbers is not a good tool for working with large datasets. As you have seen, it can become quite sluggish with large tables. On my machine several thousand rows is OK, as long as I'm not using "volatile" formulas. But working with over 10,000 rows isn't a great experience. Recommend you keep that in mind before committing too much time to a Numbers solution for this particular project.

SG