How to sort by date in Excel?

Question

I'm trying to sort bt date in an Excel sheet. I have formated my my cells like dd-mm-yyyy

March 03 2005 will be intered as 03-03-2005
April 15 2005 15-04-2005
sept 1 2006 01-09-2006

After an ascending 01-09-2006
sorting i got 03-03-2005
15-04-2005

Data from 2006 should be listed as the last one. My Excel sheet doesn't accept my input as a date number.

Thank you for any help

Answer 1

Instead of formating the cells, highlight the entire column and format it to your date type. Click on Data -> Sort. Select the column to sort by. Select Ascending or Descending and click OK.

Answer 2

When you input 15-04-2005 does not mean you entered the date April 15 2005 (even if you have changed the format cells)
The values you entered are entered as text (that is why 01 came in before 03)
The format cells you made is applied to what it showing not what entered in cell.

Your date input mask is as setted in :
Control Panel > Regional and Language Settings
There you can change the date input mask.

I prefer you enter the date as you usually do (mm/dd/yyyy or m/d/yy if you are in US)
means input the date "April 15 2005" as 4/15/5, then the format cells will show it as you set it.

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