Sorting multiple columns

[Hexius]

Howdy everyone,

I'm having a problem in excel that I can't figure out, and I thought
someone here might have a good solution.

Basically what I am trying to do, is take anywhere from 2-10ish columns
of data, sort it, and have identical data lined up on the same row. The
data will always be names.

For example....

The original data might look like:


Code:
--------------------
A B C D
1 Bill Chuck Dave Derek
2 Chuck Bill Derek Dave
3 Jane Jane Fred Murphy
4 Jim Murphy Murphy Chuck
5 Fred Jim Jane
6 Murphy Derek Jim
7 Dave Chuck
8 Derek
--------------------


Then after sorting it I'd like it to look like:


Code:
--------------------
A B C D
1 Bill Bill
2 Chuck Chuck Chuck Chuck
3 Dave Dave Dave
4 Derek Derek Derek Derek
5 Fred Fred
6 Jane Jane Jane
7 Jim Jim Jim
8 Murphy Murphy Murphy Murphy
--------------------


I can obviously sort each column one by one, and then drag it around to
be lined up... but I didn't know if there was some simple function or
macro that I wasn't aware of that would do what I want.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Max]

One way ..

Assuming source data in sheet: X
where the key* col is assumed col A
*i.e. col A contains the full list of all names

In another sheet: Y,

Copy > paste col A from X into col A
Do a data > sort > ascending

Then place in B1:
=IF(ISNUMBER(MATCH($A1,X!B:B,0)),$A1,"")
Copy across to D1, fill down

Y will return the required results

 

[Hexius]

Thank you for the reply Max! While the method you suggested isn't
exactly what I was looking for, it works great and will probably be
what I wind up using. I'll have to tweak the way my excel sheet is set
up a bit, but that is done easily enough.

Ideally, I would like to use a macro or script of some sort that I
could just run once on the one sheet to have it automatically sort the
columns.

Thanks for your suggestion though, it gets the job done!

 

[Max]

Glad it helped !
Thanks for the feedback