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I have a long table with 3 columns. The first column does not always have a value (integer, 6 digits) in it, but is unique when it does. The second is the type, with 4 separate values all the columns are. Then the third column is the name, also unique. Looks like so:

  |    A    |    B    |    C    |
1 | 123456  | Type    | Data1   |
2 |         | Type    | Data2   |
3 | 123457  | Type2   | Data3   |
4 |         | Type    | Data4   |

What I want is it to sort in order 1, 3, 2, 4. I want the first column WITH values at the top, and then the name (Column C) sorted A-Z. I then want the rows with nothing in column A at the bottom, still sorted with Column C. Is this possible in either Excel 2007 or Excel 2013?

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2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Sort by column, then click the add level button, then select another column.

enter image description here

Note: This picture is from Excel 2013.

Edit: To answer your clarified question you can do:

  • Change the color of the first column with values (only the ones with values, you can do this with conditional formatting)
  • Then sort by color of column A, then column B (values)
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When I do that, it does not sort the third column as expected, since Column A has all unique values (if it has values) –  Canadian Luke Aug 23 '12 at 21:15
So what is the problem? It sorts it so the last column is Data(3,1,2,4) –  soandos Aug 23 '12 at 21:20
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Is there something I'm not getting about your question? This seems trivial.

Data -> Sort






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When I do that, it does not sort on the unique column –  Canadian Luke Aug 23 '12 at 21:20
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