Trying to run a sort but it's saying I can't because something's in an array.

Copper Contributor

I'm trying to run a sort on a spreadsheet. It won't do it because it's saying something like it cannot run the support because there's a array.

I don't remember setting up an array.

How do I get rid of the array?

 

Operating system Windows, Excel from Office 365.

 

Thanks!

3 Replies

@KarlGustafson 

 

You could help us help  you by describing what you DO remember, what you DID do. In particular, I'm wondering if you might have used the UNIQUE or FILTER functions. Those functions are called "Dynamic Array functions" and inherently establish an array as their output. If you used one of those, you could sort the resulting array by adding the SORT function to it.

 

But if that's not what you've done, perhaps you could describe the situation a bit more completely. What is the nature of the data that you're seeking to sort, how was it created, etc...

 

 

I'm building up a spreadsheet, for the IRS. I keep adding chunks from different years and different accounts. The sort has worked every time, except for this last time. After I added a new chunk of about 300 lines, the sort function stops saying it cannot change an array. I didn't realize I had created an array. I've been using Excel and its predecessor for about 40 years and have never used the array function. So I'm not sure how I might have added it.
I was thinking I would take out this last chunk and see if the sort works then. Then I can re-import the data, and hope I didn't do it with an array.
I'd welcome more a more direct way, if there is one.
Thanks!
Your idea of removing the last "chunk" (it's not often we see such technical language used ;) ] is a good one, get back to when the Sort was working...and start over. How are you doing the import? What's the nature of the source? Can you bring it in as a CSV file instead of XLS or XLSX?