In Excel, I am cataloging classical 78s. Numbered sequential sides of the same title, artist, Part 1, Part 2, etc. then with different recording dates due to remakes, different record companies, etc. These are to file by artist, then recording date, then, alphabetically within recordings of the identical music by other artists. How can I marry two rows so they will always file together as a pair in any sort?
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Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer.– Community BotCommented Jun 1, 2023 at 18:51
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Make sure you select all the data when sorting?– cybernetic.nomadCommented Jun 1, 2023 at 18:54
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1Sounds like a database would do a better job. All I can think for sorting in Excel is to have a separate column specifically for sorting and give both the married rows the same value.– Darren Bartrup-CookCommented Jun 2, 2023 at 6:59
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Without providing some sample data with a before and after example it is difficult to provide an informed answer. If you edit your question with that you will get answers. Barring that @DarrenBartrup-Cook's reccomendation to add a column with unique values shared between related rows will give you a sort key to work with– BlindspotsCommented Jun 2, 2023 at 14:34
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1 Answer
So what I'm hearing (and correct me if I'm wrong) You have each record side as its own row on the sheet. Then you have columns with the attributes you want to be able to look up later. You want to be able to sort the list by say, album, and not have the sides get split vertically on the sheet if the album was re-released by a different label. Is that right?
Assuming that it is there are a few ways to do address your issue
If the sides should always appear together, and there is no case where they should ever be separate you should probably restructure the data so that its all one row with the columns repeated but with the side two info. That is to say if they have the same info, and should always be together, they should probably be one row.
If the sides need to be split sometimes but not always, theres a couple ways that you can address this. The best way in my opinion to do this is to add a helper column with a formula that simply concatenates the contents of the other columns to create a value that is unique to allow you to sort by that first. for example if the artist + the label + album + year will always identify both sides you can combine them with a formula like
=B1&C1&D1&E1. Then when you sort your sheet you can sort by that row first.Just assign an ID number to each disk that way each side will have one piece of data that is unique to the disk but not to the sides. Then when you sort you can sort by that ID last to keep the sides together.
If none of these are going to work for you seeing some screenshots of the unsorted data and then the sort not working the way you want it would help a lot.
