Sort a specific column only in Numbers

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Level 1

9 points

Sort a specific column only in Numbers

Hello and thanks in advance for the support.

I use a Numbers document to keep a track of monthly budgets and spending and one function that I miss from Excel is the ability to auto sort one/two column(s) in order of the highest number. I like this as I can see at a glance where my money has been going in different categories (in different columns) like Food, fuel etc as the highest spend goes to the top of the column.

So far I can't see a way to only Sort the info in two columns and not the whole sheet. Does anyone know if it is possible in Numbers? I do it manually at the moment but a couple of clicks would be a lot slicker.

Thanks in advance,

Grant

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.0

Posted on Dec 4, 2021 9:15 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Barry

Level 9

59,867 points

Dec 5, 2021 1:12 AM in response to Eteraal

Numbers sorts a Table and cases the sort on the values in a specific column, or on the values in one specific column, then, within each category determined by the first sort, on the values in a second column.

To sort a single column, isolate that column in a table of its own, and sort that table by those values.

Isolating a single column is easily done by

Selecting the column,
pressing command-C to copy the contents of cells in that column
Clicking on an open (empty) space on the Sheet
pressing command-V to paste those contents into an automatically created single column table, then
sorting that single column table.

With your current version of Numbers, you should also explore the recently added Pivot Tables feature and the previously added Category talents of Numbers, both of which you may find useful for a 'couple of clicks' solution.

Regards,

Barry

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Answer 2

Eteraal Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 10, 2021 3:24 AM in response to Barry

Thanks, Barry, I'll have a look at the Pivot and Category talents options.

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Sort a specific column only in Numbers

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