Alphabetise or sort table data in Numbers on Mac
You can sort some or all data in a table alphabetically or by increasing or decreasing values. When you sort by a column, the rows of the table rearrange accordingly.
Note: If the sort options aren’t available, your table might have cells merged across adjacent rows. You need to unmerge the cells to sort. Click the merged cells, then choose Table > Unmerge Cells (from the Table menu at the top of your screen). If you’re not sure where the merged cells are, select the table, then choose Table > Unmerge All Cells.
Text in column headers and footers isn’t sorted, but values in hidden rows and hidden columns are.
Alphabetise or sort by ascending or descending values
To sort the whole table, select the table.
Move the pointer over the letter above the column by which you want to sort.
Click the arrow that appears, then choose a sorting option:
Sort Ascending: Sort the data in alphabetical order (A to Z) or by increasing numerical values.
Sort Descending: Sort the data in reverse alphabetical order (Z to A) or by decreasing numerical values.
Note: If your data is categoried, it’s sorted within the category groups. To sort the groups themselves, move the pointer over the column with the group names and click the arrow that appears. Move the pointer over Sort Groups, then choose an option. To sort groups by summary row values, you can also click the arrow next to the column letter, move the pointer over Sort Summaries, then choose an option.
In columns containing both text and numbers, ascending order sorts numbers before text (for example, 1a, 1b, 2a, a1, b1). Ascending order also places Boolean (true/false) cells after cells sorted alphabetically or numerically, and places blank cells at the bottom of the column.
Note: To sort only a subset of rows, select the range, Control-click the selected cells in the column by which you want to sort, then choose Sort Rows Ascending or Sort Rows Descending.
Create a sorting rule
You can sort a table by creating sorting rules, which allow you to specify multiple criteria for sorting and their order of importance. For example, you can sort a list of swimmers by age and then by their time in an event. The result orders the swimmers at each age level according to their speed.
Note: You can’t sort rows with merged cells.
Select a table to sort, or select just specific rows in a column to sort.
In the Organise
sidebar, click the Sort tab.Click the pop-up menu in the sidebar and choose Sort Entire Table or Sort Selected Rows.
Click Add a Column.
Choose a column to sort by, then click the pop-up menu in the rule and choose Ascending or Descending.
To add more rules, click Add a Column.
Sorting rules are applied in the order they appear in the sidebar.
To reorder the rules, move the pointer over the rule, drag
, then click Sort Now.
Delete a sorting rule
If you don’t need a rule, you can delete it.
Click the table.
In the Organise
sidebar, click the Sort tab, move the pointer over a rule, then click 
.