Sorting by date in Excel helps organize your data so you can easily view it in chronological order. Whether you are tracking sales, project timelines, or personal records, sorting by date can make your spreadsheet more organized and easier to understand. Excel offers built-in tools to arrange your dates in ascending order (oldest to newest) or descending order (newest to oldest). Here is how to sort by date in Excel.

Make sure the column you want to sort contains properly formatted date entries. If your dates are stored as text, Excel may not sort them correctly, so you may need to convert them to date format first. You can do this by selecting the column, right-clicking, choosing “Format Cells,” and selecting the Date category.

Click anywhere in the column that contains your dates. If your data has headers, ensure the first row contains a clear label, such as “Date” or “Order Date.” This will help Excel identify your header row and prevent it from being sorted with the rest of the data.

Go to the “Data” tab on the Excel ribbon. In the Sort & Filter group, you will see options such as “Sort Oldest to Newest” and “Sort Newest to Oldest.” Click the one you need based on how you want your dates arranged.