Sort text by length

To sort text strings by length in ascending or descending order, you can use a formula based on the SORTBY and LEN functions. In the example shown, the formula in D5 is: =SORTBY(B5:B15,LEN(B5:B15),-1) which sorts the text values in column B by string length, in descending order.

April 14, 2025 · 1 min · 51 words · David George

Table of Contents

Explanation

TheSORTBY functioncan sort values in a range with anarraythat doesn’t exist on the worksheet.

Use a positive 1 to sort in ascending order.

The range or array used to sort does not need to appear in results.

Excel formula: Sort by one column

LEN will also count characters in numbers, but number formatting is not included.

Excel formula: Sort by two columns

Excel formula: Random sort

Excel formula: Sort by custom list

Excel SORTBY function

Excel LEN function