How to Undo Sort in Excel (3 Easy Methods)

Method 1 – Use Ctrl + Z to Undo a Sort in Excel

• Press Ctrl + Z immediately after sorting your data.
• The Undo shortcut will instantly undo a sort and revert the data to its original state.
• This only works if sorting was the last thing you previously did.

Method 2 – Use the Clear Command to Undo a Sort in Excel

This method works if you’ve used the following:

• The Filter option from the DATA tab under the Sort & Filter group.

• You’ve selected either Sort A to Z or Sort Z to A.

Steps:

• Go to the DATA tab.
• Under the Sort & Filter group, you will find the Clear command.
• Click on it.

You can also find the Clear command by following: HOME > Editing > Sort & Filter > Clear

Read More: How to Remove Sort by Color in Excel

Method 3 – Undo a Sort and Revert Back Data to the Original State in Excel

• Add an additional column to the data table that stores the serial number of the rows in your data table.
• Go to the DATA tab.
• Select FILTER from the Sort & Filter group.
• Click on the drop-down icon of any of the table headers.
• Select Sort A to Z or Sort Z to A and hit the OK button to sort your data.

• The data have been sorted and the serial numbers of the rows have been jumbled up.
• Go to the DATA tab.
• From the Sort & Filter group, select Clear to undo sort.
• If you look at your data, you can see that it didn’t revert to the original state.

• Click on the drop-down icon of the tracker column and select Sort Smallest to Largest.
• Hit the OK button.
• This will rearrange the serial number of the tracker column, which reverts the data to its original state.

Remove the Filter and Revert the Data to the Original State

• Go to the DATA tab and click on Filter.
• This will remove the Filter from your data.

• Select your data and go back to the DATA tab.
• From the Sort & Filter group, click on the A to Z icon.

• Here’s the final result.

Things to Remember

• The second method doesn’t revert back the data to its original state.
• The first method only works immediately after applying the sort command.
• If you want to revert data to the original state, use the third method.

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