FORMULA & SQL / LOOKUPS

Sort rows by a column.
Tested, not guessed.

The Excel and Google Sheets formula and the SQL query, each run on the rows below. Open this with your own data ↗

The example rows

Row	A: Region	B: Rep	C: Amount	D: Order Date	E: Status	F: Customer
2	North	Ana	1,200	2026-03-01	Paid	Jo Smith
3	South	Ben	450	2026-03-15	Open	Raj Patel
4	North	Cy	300	2026-04-02	Paid	Lee Wong
5	East	Ana	980.50	2026-04-20	Paid	Mia Ross
6	North	Ben	75	2026-05-05	Open	Jo Smith
7	West	Dee	1,640	2026-05-18	Paid	Sam Okoro

Excel

=SORT(A2:F7,1,-1)

The range A2:F7, sorted.

Run on the example rows:

PostgreSQL

SELECT *
FROM sales
ORDER BY region DESC

Run on the example rows:

region	rep	amount	order_date	status	customer
West	Dee	1640	2026-05-18	Paid	Sam Okoro
South	Ben	450	2026-03-15	Open	Raj Patel
North	Ana	1200	2026-03-01	Paid	Jo Smith
North	Cy	300	2026-04-02	Paid	Lee Wong
North	Ben	75	2026-05-05	Open	Jo Smith
East	Ana	980.5	2026-04-20	Paid	Mia Ross

Other databases

MySQL

SELECT *
FROM sales
ORDER BY region DESC

SQL Server

SELECT *
FROM sales
ORDER BY region DESC

SQLite

SELECT *
FROM sales
ORDER BY region DESC

BigQuery

SELECT *
FROM sales
ORDER BY region DESC

Snowflake

SELECT *
FROM sales
ORDER BY region DESC

Paste your rows into the free tool and it writes this for your columns, then runs it on your data before you copy it. Open the tool ↗