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Sorting by last name in Google Sheets is a simple process that allows you to organize and arrange data based on the last name of individuals. To do this, you can use the built-in sorting function in Google Sheets by selecting the data range you want to sort, clicking on the “Data” tab, and choosing the “Sort range” option. From there, you can select the column containing last names and choose the sorting order (ascending or descending) to arrange the data accordingly. This feature is useful for managing large lists of names or organizing data by specific categories.
Sort by Last Name in Google Sheets
Often you may want to sort the names in a column in Google Sheets based on last name.
Fortunately this is easy to do and the following step-by-step example shows how to do so.
Step 1: Enter the Names
Suppose we have the following list of names in Google Sheets:
Step 2: Create New Column that Contains Last Name
We can use the following formula to extract the last name from each full name:
=TRIM(RIGHT(SUBSTITUTE(A2," ",REPT(" ",LEN(A2))),LEN(A2)))
We can type this formula into cell B2, then drag and fill it down to the remaining cells in column B:
Column B now contains the last name of each full name in column A.
Notice that the formula works whether or not the name contains a middle name.
Step 3: Sort by Last Name
Lastly, we can highlight the range B2:A11, then click the Data tab and then click Sort Range and then click Sort range by column B (A to Z):
The rows will be sorted by last name from A to Z:
Additional Resources
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in Google Sheets: