Excel: Sort Days of the Week

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Problem: I have a column with values such as Monday, Wednesday, and so on. When I sort this column in ascending sequence, Friday comes before Monday. The same problem happens with month names, which sort as April, August, December, and so on.

  1. Friday is alphabetically before Monday.

    Strategy: Excel has custom lists built in for months and days. To use them, follow these steps:

    1. Select a cell in your data.
    2. Select Data, Sort.
    3. Choose Sort by Day and Sort on Values. In the Order dropdown, choose Custom List.
    4. Choose Sunday, Monday, Tuesday from the Custom List dialog. Click OK.

    Excel will sort the data correctly.

  2. Weekdays are sorted correctly.