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Chapter 16: Building and Maintaining Data Lists 209

Be sure to clear all but the Sort By key in the Sort dialog box.
Be sure to select its Descending option button after selecting Date Hired as the
Sort By key.
5. Sort the Employee Data List so that its records are in order from the highest to
the lowest salary.
6. Close the Solved16-2.xls workbook file without saving your changes.

Sorting on more than three keys

Sometimes, you may need to sort on more three fields (the maximum you can define in
one sorting operation). For example, suppose you are working with a personnel data list
and you want to organize the records in alphabetical order by first by department, and
then by supervisor, and finally by last name, first name, and middle name. To sort the
records in this data list by these five fields, you have to perform two sorting operations:

For the first sort, define the Last Name field as the primary key, the First Name
field as the secondary key, and the Middle Name field as the third key
For the second sort, define the Department field as the primary key and the
Supervisor field as the secondary key

Try It

Exercise 16-4: Sorting the Records in a Data List on More Than Three Keys

Open the Exercise16-4.xls file in your Chapter 16 folder in the My Practice Spreadsheets
folder on your hard disk or in the Excel Workbook folder on the workbook CD-ROM.
This workbook contains a copy of the Personnel Data List that you will sort in alpha-
betical order by first by the department name, and then by the supervisor’s name,
and finally by the employee’s last, first, and middle name:

1. Choose Data➪Sort to open the Sort dialog box and then select the Sort By and
Then By keys to sort the Personnel Data List in alphabetical order by last, first,
and middle name before you select OK.
Check the Last Name, First Name, and Middle Name fields in the sorted data list
and verify that they are now all in alphabetical order by last, first, and middle
name.

2. Sort the Personnel Data List a second time, this time in alphabetical order by
department and then by supervisor.
Check the Department and Supervisor fields in the re-sorted data list and verify
that they are now in alphabetical order first by department name and then by
supervisor name. Note in the case of supervisor Jones in the Sales department
that the name of her employees are in order by last name and then first name.
3. Save your sorted Personnel Data List worksheet in a new workbook file named
Solved16-4.xls in your Chapter 16 folder in the My Practice Spreadsheets folder
and leave the workbook file open for the next exercise.

Sorting the fields (columns) in a data list

You can use Excel’s column sorting capability to change the order of the fields in a
data list without having to resort to cutting and pasting various columns. To sort the
fields in a data list, add a row at the top of the list containing numbers from 1 to the