Often you may want to sort the strings in a column in Google Sheets based on character length.
Fortunately this is easy to do by using the LEN function.
The following step-by-step example shows exactly how to do so.
Step 1: Enter the Data
First, let’s enter the names of various basketball teams in Google Sheets:
Step 2: Calculate Length of Each String
Next, we will type the following formula into cell B2 to calculate the length of the string in cell A2:
=LEN(A2)
We can then click and drag this formula down to each remaining cell in column B:
The Length column displays the number of characters in each corresponding string in the Team column.
Step 3: Sort Strings by Length
Next, highlight the cell range A2:B11, then click the Data tab along the top ribbon, then click Sort range, then click Advanced range sorting options:
In the new window that appears, choose to Sort by Column B from A to Z, then click Sort:
Once you click Sort, the team names will be sorted based on length from shortest to longest:
Note #1: If you would rather sort from longest to shortest length, then click Sort by Z to A instead.
Note #2: Feel free to delete the Length column once you’ve used it to sort the data.
Additional Resources
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common operations in Google Sheets:
Google Sheets: How to Sort and Ignore Blanks
Google Sheets: How to Sort by Date
Google Sheets: How to Sort by Last Name
