"automandc" wrote...
....
I have a large table (R1150 X C50) with numeric values in each cell. I
want
to put all of the data into numerical order, but retain the name of the
column each data point came from.
....

50 * 1150 = 57500, so not a problem fitting all observations into separate
rows in one worksheet.

Simplest way I can think of is naming your original data range Data, then
extracting it into 2 colums (original column letter in first column, data
value in sedond column), coverting formulas to values, then sorting the
result.

If the top-left cell of the extract range were X5, enter the following
formulas.

X5:
=SUBSTITUTE(ADDRESS(1,1+INT((ROW()-ROW($X$5))/ROWS(Data)),4),"1","")

Y5:
=INDEX(Data,1+MOD(ROW()-ROW($X$5),ROWS(Data)),
1+INT((ROW()-ROW($X$5))/ROWS(Data)))

Fill X5:Y5 down into X6:Y57504. Select X5:Y57504, Edit Copy, Edit Paste
Special as values, Data Sort on column Y in descending order. You should
have the data values in col Y sorted in descending order and their original
column letters in the same row in col X.