How to Sort Cell Range

Sorting data in alphabetical or value order is essential for data analysis in Microsoft Excel. With IronXL, sorting Excel columns, rows, and ranges becomes straightforward in C# and VB.NET.

How to Sort Cell Range in Excel

Download C# library to sort cell range
Load existing Excel spreadsheet or create new one
Select range or column to be sorted
Apply SortAscending or SortDescending method based on desired order
Sort a range based on a particular column with SortByColumn method

Sort Cell Range Example

Use SortAscending or SortDescending method on the selected range or column to apply sorting in the desired order.

When applying sorting on a range with multiple columns, the SortAscending or SortDescending method will independently iterate and apply the sorting on each column.

These methods push any empty cells to either the top or bottom of the range. To remove these empty cells, you can use the Trim method after sorting. This will eliminate the empty cells, ensuring a clean and organized data set.

:path=/static-assets/excel/content-code-examples/how-to/sort-cells-range.cs

using IronXL;

WorkBook workBook = WorkBook.Load("sample.xlsx");
WorkSheet workSheet = workBook.DefaultWorkSheet;

// Select a column(A)
var column = workSheet.GetColumn(0);

// Sort column(A) in ascending order (A to Z)
column.SortAscending();

// Sort column(A) in descending order (Z to A)
column.SortDescending();

workBook.SaveAs("sortExcelRange.xlsx");

Imports IronXL

Private workBook As WorkBook = WorkBook.Load("sample.xlsx")
Private workSheet As WorkSheet = workBook.DefaultWorkSheet

' Select a column(A)
Private column = workSheet.GetColumn(0)

' Sort column(A) in ascending order (A to Z)
column.SortAscending()

' Sort column(A) in descending order (Z to A)
column.SortDescending()

workBook.SaveAs("sortExcelRange.xlsx")

VB C#

Sort By Column

SortByColumn method allow to sort a range based on a specified column. This method requires two parameters: the first parameter is the column you want to sort by, and the second parameter is the range you want to apply the sorting to.

:path=/static-assets/excel/content-code-examples/how-to/sort-cells-sort-by-column.cs

using IronXL;

WorkBook workBook = WorkBook.Load("sample.xlsx");
WorkSheet workSheet = workBook.DefaultWorkSheet;

// Select a range
var range = workSheet["A1:D10"];

// Sort the range by column(B) in ascending order
range.SortByColumn("B", SortOrder.Ascending);

workBook.SaveAs("sortRange.xlsx");

Imports IronXL

Private workBook As WorkBook = WorkBook.Load("sample.xlsx")
Private workSheet As WorkSheet = workBook.DefaultWorkSheet

' Select a range
Private range = workSheet("A1:D10")

' Sort the range by column(B) in ascending order
range.SortByColumn("B", SortOrder.Ascending)

workBook.SaveAs("sortRange.xlsx")

VB C#

Chaknith Bin

Software Engineer

Chaknith is the Sherlock Holmes of developers. It first occurred to him he might have a future in software engineering, when he was doing code challenges for fun. His focus is on IronXL and IronBarcode, but he takes pride in helping customers with every product. Chaknith leverages his knowledge from talking directly with customers, to help further improve the products themselves. His anecdotal feedback goes beyond Jira tickets and supports product development, documentation and marketing, to improve customer’s overall experience.When he isn’t in the office, he can be found learning about machine learning, coding and hiking.