How can I sort a table that has self populating cells ?

Hello. I'm encountering a problem sorting tables that have columns that self-populate according to what data is entered in another table.


In short, column A of Table 1 creates a list of all the unique names that appear in column A of table 2, meaning that no matter how many times this name appears in table 2, it will only be added once to column A of Table 1.


The rest of Table 1 pulls data about the name in column A.


The problem is that if I try to sort the table (ascending or descending) via one of the other columns of Table 1, nothing happens because the Table immediately returns to it's original state (i.e., column A gets repopulated with the same list in the same order and the rest of the table refills according to column A).


To sort the table, I could of course copy column A and "paste formula results" back in column A. But now any new name added to Table 2 won't show up in Table 1 automatically.


If, on the other hand, I "paste formula results" only for the rows of column A that have been populated with a unique name, trying to sort the table breaks everything as the rows in column A that still contain the original formula will start pulling names again, creating duplicates (this is what you see in the second screenshot - purple are live formula results, black are pasted formula results).


Anyone can think of a way to get around this?



Posted on Feb 3, 2024 10:24 AM

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How can I sort a table that has self populating cells ?

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