Easily sort by last name/word in cells in Excel

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An example may be easy to understand. The following ways will show you how to sort the cells in the Column A by their last characters.

If we can extract the last characters from each cell, it will be easy to sort the cells by their last characters. Luckily, Microsoft Excel's Right function supports extracting the last letter or number form cells.

1.  Select a blank cell besides the column, says Cell B2, enter the formula of =RIGHT(A2,1), and then drag the cells's Fill Handle down to the cells as you need.

2. Keep selecting these formula cells, and click Data > Sort A to Z or Sort Z to A. In the opening Sort warning dialog box, check Expand the selection option and click Sort button. See screenshot:

3. Now data has been sorted. Please delete the formula cells as you need

Then you will see the cells in original Column A are sorted by their last characters.

You may also think of reverse the cell contents before sorting them by their last characters. Actually here is a VBA macro can help you.

1.  Hold down the Ctrl + F11 key to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Application window.

2.  Click the Insert >> Module, and paste the following VBA code on the new Module window:

VBA: Extract the last character form a cell

Public Function RevStr(Rng As Range)
RevStr = StrReverse(Rng.text)
End Function

3.  Go back to the Microsoft Excel window, enter the formula of =RevStr(A1), and drag the cell's Fill Handle to the cells as you need.

4.  Click one of three Sort buttons under the Data button, and in the opening dialog box check the Expand the selection option and click the Sort button.

5. Delete the Column B.

Now it sort all cells in the column a by their last characters.

2. In the opening Reverse Text dialog box, check Noting option and click OK button.

3. Now all characters are reversed in selected cells. Keep selecting these cells, and click Data > Sort A to Z or Sort Z to A. In the opening Sort warning dialog box, check Expand the selection option and click Sort button. See screenshot:

4. Now cells have been sorted by last character, and we need to restore characters’ order in these cells by repeating step 1-2.

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