When you enter a dynamic array formula in one cell, Excel automatically populates the adjacent cells needed to display all the results. You’ll know it’s working when you see a blue border around this ...

The formula =SORT (A3:B17) uses the default “sort by” and “sort order” settings; thus, the list is sorted in alphabetical order. The syntax for the new SORT function is =SORT (array, [sort_index], ...

For example, editing Alexis Love's birthday alters the sort function's results to reorder the list as necessary. This is indispensable for spreadsheets that need to support changes.

Useful code Sorting in complex programs can handle large and arbitrary collections of items. But at the level of standard libraries, it's built from a large collection of highly specific functions ...