How to sort data with merged cells in Excel?

If merged cells existing in a list, you will get a prompt box while sorting the data of this list as the left screenshot shown.

Actually, there is no method for you to sort data with merged cells directly. You need to unmerge all merged cells at first and then sort the list. This article will introduce several tricks for you.

Sort data with merged cells by unmerging all cells first
Sort data with merged cells by Kutools for Excel

Sort data with merged cells by unmerging all cells first

You can unmerge all merged cells at first, then go ahead to sort the list. Please do as follows.

1. Select the list with merged cells you need to sort, then click Home > Merge & Center to unmerge the selected merged cells. See screenshot:

2. Now you can see blank cells existing in selected range. Keep the range selected, then click Find & Select > Go To Special under Home tab.

3. In the Go To Special dialog box, select the Blanks option, and then click the OK button.

4. Then all the blank cells are selected. Please type a = mark into the Formula Bar, and then reference the cell which locates above the first blank cell, and then press the Ctrl + Enter key simultaneously.

You can see all blank cells are filled with the value above.

5. Now you can start sorting your list. And after sorting, you can merge the same cell again if you need.

Sort data with merged cells by Kutools for Excel

You can easily unmerge cells in selected range without losing any data with the Unmerge Cell & Fill Value utility of Kutools for Excel. Please do as follows.

Before applying Kutools for Excel, please download and install it firstly.

1. Select the list you need to sort with merged cells, then click Kutools > Merge & Split > Unmerge Cell & Fill Value. See screenshot:

You can see all merged cells are unmerged and filled the unmerged cells with duplicate values.

2. Now you can start sorting your data. After sorting, you can select the list and click Kutools > Merge & Split > Merge Same Cells to merge the same value cells again.

If you want to have a free trial (30-day) of this utility, please click to download it, and then go to apply the operation according above steps.

Sort data with merged cells by Kutools for Excel

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