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How to sort data ignoring the first characters in Excel?

Author Xiaoyang Last modified

It is easy for us to sort data in ascending or descending order in Excel, is it possible to sort a column without the first one or two or n characters in a cell? For example, I have the following data range, I want to sort the list of data ignoring the first three characters, that is to say, I need to sort the data from the fourth character of the text as following screenshots shown:

A screenshot of data range in Excel showing before sorting Arrow A screenshot of the sorted data in Excel with the first three characters ignored in the sorting process

Sort data ignoring the first n characters with helper column


arrow blue right bubble Sort data ignoring the first n characters with helper column

In Excel, you can create a helper column to remove the first n characters you want to ignore before sorting the data. Then, you can sort the data as usual. Please follow these steps:

1. In a blank cell besides your data, enter this formula: =RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-3) (A2 is the cell which contains the data that you want to sort, the number 3 indicates the number of the character that you want to remove, you can change it to your need), see screenshot:

A screenshot of the Excel formula bar with the formula =RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-3) applied

2. And then drag the fill handle over to the range that you want to apply this formula, and all the first three characters have been removed from the text string, see screenshot:

A screenshot of the formula being dragged down across the Excel range to remove the first three characters

3. Then sort the data by this helper column, select the data range (A2:B12 in this example), and click Data > Sort, see screenshot:

A screenshot of the Sort dialog box in Excel with sorting options for the helper column selected

4. In the Sort dialog box, choose the helper column name that you want to sort by, and select Values from the Sort On section, at last, specify the sort order you need, see screenshot:

A screenshot of the Sort dialog in Excel showing the selected helper column for sorting

5. And then click OK to close this dialog, now, you can see your data has been sorted without the first three characters, see screenshot:

A screenshot of the sorted data in Excel with the first three characters ignored in the sorting process

6. At last, you can delete the content of the helper column as you need.


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How to sort cells by absolute values in Excel?

How to sort data by the most frequent value in Excel?

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