sorting numbers data

In both Numbers and Excel you're better off keeping like data together rather than scattering it around.

Copy-paste the data into one table. You can then sort that.

Copy-pasting should take just a few minutes at most.

It will then be easy to apply filters to view subsets of the long combined table.

Filter data in Numbers on Mac - Apple Support

SG

HI Peter,

You wrote: "When I copy and paste it pastes to an equivalent sheet."

A "Sheet" is the large and initially empty surface which contains the Tables, text boxes, and other objects you place in the document. A Sheet's function is similar (but not identical) to the function of a Worksheet in an MS Excel document.

A Table is the rectangular grid which contains the data with which you are working.

If you copy a "Sheet" and its contents the whole Sheet is what is copied, and the whole sheet is what gets pasted when you press command-P

If you copy 'the contents of a sheet', you are copying a Table, including the table's structure and its contents (the data and formulas in the cells). If you then paste what you've copied, the result is the copied Table and its contents (and no rows will be added).

If you do NOT select the Table, but DO select cells in that table, then press command-C to Copy, what gets copied in the content of the selected cells, and the information telling Numbers the position of the source cells with respect to the top left cell of the selection.

When you then click ONCE on the top left cell of the space on the receiving Table, then press command-P the copied data is pasted into that the block of cells in the same position relative to the cell in the top left corner of the the cells containing that data in the source table, and new rows and/or columns are added to the receiving table to accommodate the data that would otherwise not fit on that table.

Example;

Here is a screen shot of part of Sheet 1 of my document.

Sheet 1 contains a single table, Table 1.

Table 1 on Sheet 1 has a Header row, a Header Column, 45 cells containing data, and an empty row, added to give a starting place (cell B11) for adding more data.

Sheet 2 of the same document also contains a single Table, also named Table 1.

(Not particularly good practice, as it makes for longer addresses to locate each cell.)

I have clicked once on cell B2 of this table to select it, then dragged the pointer down to cell B10 and right to cell E10 to select all 36 data cells on this Table.

Pressing command-C copies the content of these 36 cells and the information regarding their position relative to cell B2 (and other information regarding the text font and style used in these cells.

Returning to Sheet 1:

I click (once) on cell B11 to reselect it, then press Command-P to past in the data I have copies from the second Table 1 on Sheet 2:

Note that Numbers has automatically added eight new Rows to receive the transferred data, and has not added any columns as none are needed.

As I have other tables with data that should be gathered on to this table, and considering Numbers added no more rows than were needed for the current paste,

I give the barred circle at the bottom of the row reference tabs a single click:

Providing a new 'empty row' and a starting place for the next data transfer from Table 3 (or from Table 1 on Sheet 3 if that's the way it is numbered).

Regsards,

Barry

Hi Peter,

"I want to sort the 4 sheets as if they're one. "

I'm assuming each Sheet contains one Table, and you want to sort the contents of the four Tables as if they're one, basing the sort on the content of the same column in each table.

Numbers does not support combined sorting of data in more than one table in a single sort.

You can accomplish this by copying the data from each table, and pasting the individual table contents into a single, larger, table.

With the data in the same columns of a single table, you can then do a sort based on the contents of the single 'sort' column.

This will create one large table with the rows sorted on the values in the sort column.

You can then select the rows matching the number of rows in the first table, and containing the sorted set in the range you want displayed in that table, Copy those rows, and Paste those rows into the data rows of the first table, replacing the original data in those rows.

Repeat the select, copy and paste routine with the second, third and final rows of the sorted data and the data rows of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th original tables.

Regards,

Barry

Peter Best1 wrote:

when I copied and pasted Sheet 2 it merely became Sheet 2 in the new table, advancing the cause not at all. Is it possible to copy and paste the actual content of the sheet without it being a sheet?

Yes. Select cells in a source table, and hit command-c to copy to the clipboard.

Navigate to the destination table and click once in a cell, then command-v to paste.

In the destination table you may want to first add a blank row below the rest of the rows, then click once its cell in column A, and command-v to paste.

Repeat with other source tables that you want to consolidate into the destination table.

In the end you should have all your data in the destination table, with no blank rows.

SG

Spreadsheets can be complicated.

But copying and pasting is a basic operation on a computer. If you are using software at all, Numbers or other apps, then it would be worth a few minutes of your time to learn how to do that. It's not hard at all.

SG

Peter Best1 wrote:

selection process in spreadsheets opaque and arcane

Click and drag, followed by command-c, a click, and command-v to paste. That's all it takes, a second or so at most. Almost identical in most apps on the Mac and Windows. It's been that way since the 1980s. Nothing special about spreadsheets in that regard.

SG