How do I sort a table in Excel if it has cell references in it?

Question

I have a table of data in excel in sheet 1 which references various different cells in many other sheets. When I try to sort or filter the sheet, the references change when

Answer 1

I was hoping to find a why on here, but I think the answer is simpler than we are making it.

The cells should sort regardless of what page they are referencing in your workbook. What was causing the issue for us was any page name references on the current page.

EX: I am in the Today workbook, and I am referencing data for a sales rep on a different page.

If my criteria (The reps name) is in Today!C1 (Or $C1, $c$1) and I try to sort, the sheet will not recognize the action. But if you remove the name that is referencing the page you are on (Redundant reference really) this problem should stop.

So SUMIFS('Sales'!C1,'Sales'!A1,Today!C1) will now be SUMIFS('Sales'!C1,'Sales'!A1,C1)

If someone can enlighten to as why it works that way, that would be amazing.

Answer 2

Easy solution - copy from excel and paste into google sheets. It copies all of your reference cells as absolute cells so you can begin from scratch. Then sort and download back as an excel grid and reformat to your needs.

Answer 3

The answer for me was to separate the data into two grids with a blank column between them. The grid on the left is the data you want to be able to sort, the grid on the right contains the formula you want to calculate. When you sort, the formula simply work on the data in the rows in the left-hand grid and do not get the row references mixed up by the sort.

Answer 4

I had this same problem; I had a master sheet which was a summary of information on other worksheets in my workbook.

If you just want to filter/sort in a worksheet where you have your data stored, and then return it to its original state (no matter what you are filtering/sorting by) just make your first column a Line Item Number.

After your initial filter/sort you can then just resort by the “Line Item Number” to return everything back to normal. NOTE: This only works if you always add new rows to the end of the list in sequence.

Answer 5

I needed to sort cells with references, and really needed to avoid pasting Values to work with.. The "Pivot Table" did the trick.

1. Prepare your tables with references.
2. Select the table (with references) and insert Pivot Table
3. In the pivot table, select required filters to make the Pivot table look as your original Table (if needed).
4. Sort / filter data further as required.

Just be sure to right click on Pivot table and hit "refresh" each time you change some generic data (used in your tables).

Hope it will help. Andrei

Answer 6

Not sure if this will satisfy all, but I found a simple workaround that fixed the problem for me. Move all your referenced cells/formulas to a different sheet so that you aren't referencing any cells in the sheet that has the table to be sorted. If you do this, you can sort away!