"Biff" wrote
The formulas are too complicated and will scare people off!

How can anything which works be scary? More a work of fine art to appreciate
rather than anything to be scared about. The complicated looking parts of it
perhaps might take a little more effort on the OP's / readers' part to study
and understand how it works so that one could readily adapt it to suit or
cross apply it to other similar situations ..

I'm a one finger typer and sometimes it takes forever to explain my posts.

... tsk, tsk, lame excuse there <g. I've seen many of your posts where you
had patiently explained your complex formulas very well in your responses.

Personally, I would use DataSort and then DataFilterAdvanced Filter to
do this. Maybe even record it as a macro.

well, the OP did express his / her wish for:
" .. a combination of functions to automate the sorting (in ascending or
desc. order)"

For discussions' sake, how should your formulas be modified for a descending
sort ?

For easy reference here, below is what you had suggested in your sample:

Source data assumed within A1:A21

Array-entered in B1:
=INDEX($A$1:$A$21,MATCH(MIN(COUNTIF($A$1:$A$21,"<" &$A$1:$A$21&"")+
COUNT($A$1:$A$21)*ISTEXT($A$1:$A$21)+100000*ISBLAN K($A$1:$A$21)),COUNTIF($A$1:$A$21,"<"&$A$1:$A$21&" ")+COUNT($A$1:$A$21)*ISTEXT($A$1:$A$21)+100000*ISB LANK($A$1:$A$21),0))

Array-entered in B2:
=INDEX($A$1:$A$21,MATCH(0,COUNTIF($A$1:$A$21,"<"&$ A$1:$A$21)+COUNT($A$1:$A$21)*ISTEXT($A$1:$A$21)+10 0000*ISBLANK($A$1:$A$21)-SUM(COUNTIF($A$1:$A$21,"="&B$1:B1)),0))
B2 is then copied down to B21

B1:B21 yields the auto-ascending sort of the items in A1:A21

(Array-entered: Press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER, instead of just pressing ENTER to
commit the formula)
--
Max
Singapore
http://savefile.com/projects/236895
xdemechanik
---

For discussions' sake, how should your formulas be modified for a
descending sort ?

In each formula where you see "<" just change that to "".

Biff

"Max" wrote in message
...
"Biff" wrote
The formulas are too complicated and will scare people off!

How can anything which works be scary? More a work of fine art to
appreciate rather than anything to be scared about. The complicated
looking parts of it perhaps might take a little more effort on the OP's /
readers' part to study and understand how it works so that one could
readily adapt it to suit or cross apply it to other similar situations ..

I'm a one finger typer and sometimes it takes forever to explain my
posts.

.. tsk, tsk, lame excuse there <g. I've seen many of your posts where
you had patiently explained your complex formulas very well in your
responses.

Personally, I would use DataSort and then DataFilterAdvanced Filter to
do this. Maybe even record it as a macro.

well, the OP did express his / her wish for:
" .. a combination of functions to automate the sorting (in ascending or
desc. order)"

For discussions' sake, how should your formulas be modified for a
descending sort ?

For easy reference here, below is what you had suggested in your sample:

Source data assumed within A1:A21

Array-entered in B1:
=INDEX($A$1:$A$21,MATCH(MIN(COUNTIF($A$1:$A$21,"<" &$A$1:$A$21&"")+
COUNT($A$1:$A$21)*ISTEXT($A$1:$A$21)+100000*ISBLAN K($A$1:$A$21)),COUNTIF($A$1:$A$21,"<"&$A$1:$A$21&" ")+COUNT($A$1:$A$21)*ISTEXT($A$1:$A$21)+100000*ISB LANK($A$1:$A$21),0))

Array-entered in B2:
=INDEX($A$1:$A$21,MATCH(0,COUNTIF($A$1:$A$21,"<"&$ A$1:$A$21)+COUNT($A$1:$A$21)*ISTEXT($A$1:$A$21)+10 0000*ISBLANK($A$1:$A$21)-SUM(COUNTIF($A$1:$A$21,"="&B$1:B1)),0))
B2 is then copied down to B21

B1:B21 yields the auto-ascending sort of the items in A1:A21

(Array-entered: Press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER, instead of just pressing ENTER to
commit the formula)
--
Max
Singapore
http://savefile.com/projects/236895
xdemechanik
---

"Biff" wrote:
For discussions' sake, how should your formulas be modified for a
descending sort ?

In each formula where you see "<" just change that to "".

Biff, thanks !
--
Max
Singapore
http://savefile.com/projects/236895
xdemechanik
---

You're welcome, Max!

Biff

"Max" wrote in message
...
"Biff" wrote:
For discussions' sake, how should your formulas be modified for a
descending sort ?

In each formula where you see "<" just change that to "".

Biff, thanks !
--
Max
Singapore
http://savefile.com/projects/236895
xdemechanik
---