How to create a dynamic drop down list in alphabetical order in Excel?
Most of you may know how to create a dynamic drop down list, but in some cases, you may want to sort the drop down list in alphabetical order as below screenshot shown. Now this tutorial introduces the way to create a dynamic drop down list in alphabetical order in Excel。
Create dynamic drop down list in alphabetical order
Create dynamic drop down list in alphabetical order
To create a dynamic drop down list in alphabetical order, you need to do as below steps.
1. Select the original data then click Formulas > Define Name. see screenshot:
2. Then in the New Name dialog, type a name for the selected range in the Name text box, and type this formula =OFFSET(Sheet1!$A$1, 0, 0, COUNTA(Sheet1!$A$1:$A$1001)) into Refers to text box. See screenshot:
Note: In the formula, A1 is the first cell of your original data range, and sheet1 is the worksheet you original data is in.
3. Click OK. Then go to another sheet, here I go to Sheet2, and select a cell to type this formula =IF(COUNTA(List)>=ROWS($A$1:A1), INDEX(List, MATCH(SMALL(COUNTIF(List, "<"&List), ROW(A1)), COUNTIF(List, "<"&List), 0)), "") into it, and press Shift + Ctrl + Enter keys, then drag the autofill handle down until blank cell appears. See screenshot:
Note: In the above formula, List is the name you define for the original data in step 2, A1 is the first cell of the original data.
4. Then select the column the formula cells in, and click Formula > Define Name, then in the Name text box type SortedValues in the New Name dialog. See screenshot:
5. Click OK. Then go to select a cell or a range you need to create the dynamic drop down list, and click Data > Data Validation. See screenshot:
6. Then in the Data Validation dialog, select List from the Allow list, and type =SortedValues into Source text box. See screenshot:
7. Click OK. Now you can see the created drop down list is sorted in alphabetical order.
Tip: If you add new data to the original data, the data will be automatically added to the drop down list and sort them again. See screenshot:
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