How to Sort by Multiple Columns in Excel

To sort by multiple columns in Excel, follow these steps:

1. Open your Excel workbook and select the worksheet you want to sort.
2. Click on any cell within the data you want to sort.
3. Go to the "Data" tab on the Excel ribbon.
4. Click the "Sort" button in the "Sort & Filter" group. This will open the "Sort" dialog box.
5. In the "Sort" dialog box, choose the first column you want to sort by from the "Sort by" dropdown list.
6. Choose the sorting order (either "A to Z" or "Z to A" for text, or "Smallest to Largest" or "Largest to Smallest" for numbers) in the "Order" dropdown list.
7. Click the "Add Level" button to add another sorting level.
8. Choose the second column you want to sort by from the "Then by" dropdown list.
9. Choose the sorting order for the second column in the "Order" dropdown list.
10. Repeat steps 7-9 for any additional sorting levels you want to add.
11. Once you've added all the sorting levels, click the "OK" button to apply the sorting to your data.

Example

Let's say you have an Excel worksheet with the following data:

A     B
1 Name  Age
2 John  25
3 Jane  28
4 Jake  25
5 Mary  22
6 Mark  28

You want to sort the data first by the "Age" column (column B) in ascending order and then by the "Name" column (column A) in alphabetical order.

1. Click on any cell within the data.
2. Go to the "Data" tab and click the "Sort" button.
3. In the "Sort" dialog box, choose "Age" from the "Sort by" dropdown list.
4. Choose "Smallest to Largest" in the "Order" dropdown list.
5. Click the "Add Level" button.
6. Choose "Name" from the "Then by" dropdown list.
7. Choose "A to Z" in the "Order" dropdown list.
8. Click the "OK" button to apply the sorting.

Your data should now be sorted like this:

A     B
1 Name  Age
2 Mary  22
3 John  25
4 Jake  25
5 Jane  28
6 Mark  28