Excel Tutorials: How to Sort by Date in Excel

Using Excel's Date Sort Feature

In addition to sorting regular data in a spreadsheet, such as numbers or names, Excel's sort feature can also be used to sort by date.
Excel's sort options for dates include:

• Sort in ascending order - oldest to newest.
  
  
• Sort in descending order - newest to oldest.

Sort by Date in Excel Example

For help with this example, see the image above.

1. Enter the following dates into cells D1 to D4:

   11/4/2009
   10/26/2009
   4/5/2008
   11/3/2009

2. Drag select cells D1 to D4 to highlight them.
   
   
3. Click on the Home tab of the ribbon.
   
   
4. Click on the Sort & Filter icon on the ribbon to open the drop down list.
   
   
5. Click on Sort Oldest to Newest.
   
   
6. The dates in cells D1 to D4 should now be in this order:

   4/5/2008
   10/26/2009
   11/3/2009
   11/4/2009

7. To reverse the order, highlight the dates and click on Sort Newest to Oldest sort option.