In this article:

How to Alphabetize in Google Sheets (Sort Alphabetically)

May 8, 2024

Having your data arranged is very important to help you visualize and understand it. Most often, we will sort by a number or values but there will also be times when we want to arrange text such as names, places or codes sequentially. In this article we will show you exactly how to sort alphabetically in Google Sheets to create effective data sets in two easy methods.

How to Sort Alphabetically in Google Sheets

Method 1: Using The Sort Range Feature

Say you have more than 100 participants for your marathon. To be able to make registration on the event day quicker, you decide to alphabetize the participant names and assign them to different booths. Doing this manually is a very tedious process, lets see how to sort alphabetically to make this easier:

  1. Select all your data.
Alphabetize lists on Google Sheets

Press any cell within your datasheet and press Ctrl+A (Windows) or Command+A (Mac) to select all contents for huge sets of data.

  1. Go to Data -> Sort Range -> Advanced range sorting options.
Using Google Sheets to arrange data
  1. Adjust your advanced options based on your data.
Advanced options for arranging columns


Since the data has headers, we will check “Data has header row” but you can skip this if your data has none.

You can also choose which column/header to sort by using the dropdown menu and whether you want it to be from A to Z or in reverse. 

Tip: If you need to sort one column AFTER another, simply press “Add another sort column” for the succeeding columns to be sorted out. You can do this for as many columns as you have.

  1. Press Sort.

Now your data is sorted by full name starting from A. You can use the same procedure to arrange according to last names.

Final Output in Google Sheets

Method 2: Using Filters

  1. Select your data
Selecting your data
  1. Go to Data -> Create a filter
Creating a filter in Google Sheets

Pressing Create a Filter will make filter icons appear beside each individual column header.

  1. Press the Filter icon beside the column you want to alphabetize 
Using filters to arrange data
  1. Select what order you want your data to be sorted by
Selecting A-Z Option to arrange your data

The contents of the adjacent columns will also reflect the change in order. You can do this to Alphabetize any column in Google Sheets.

Use our due date reminder software to easily automate due date reminders from your spreadsheet in just a few clicks. 

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like our article on how to sort Google Sheets or our article on how to sort by date in Google Sheets. 

If you want to learn how to sort columns in google sheets or get a copy of our Google Sheets address book template, we also suggest checking out our detailed guide. 

Get Google Sheets productivity and automation tips delivered straight to your inbox
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
We'll email you 1-3 times a week — and never share your information.

Work less, automate more!

Use Lido to connect your spreadsheets to email, Slack, calendars, and more to automate data transfers and eliminate manual copying and pasting. View all use cases ->