How to Rearrange Rows In Excel (4 Easy Ways)

While working in Microsoft Excel, you may have a need to rearrange rows in order to show the data the right way.

In this tutorial, I will show you some easy ways to quickly rearrange rows in Excel. These would also include some amazing shortcuts that you may not know already.

For demonstration purposes, I am going to use sample data of sales done by various representatives across different regions. The data is shown below.

Dataset where rows needs to be rearranged

In the above data set let’s say we want to move row 10 (highlighted with light orange color) above row 7 (highlighted with light green color) so let’s see how we can achieve this using different methods.

Table of Contents

Method 1: Move the Row using Shift Key and Mouse

According to my opinion, this is the best and fast way of moving a couple of rows in Excel. With this method, you can quickly rearrange rows.

Let’s do it step by step.

Select the row that you want to move. In the example, I am going to select row 10

Now press and hold the SHIFT key from the keyboard

While holding the SHIFT key, bring the cursor to the top edge of the selected row as shown below.

bring the cursor to the top edge of the selected row

While still holding the SHIFT key, move the row by dragging it with the mouse below the row where you want to place it as shown below.

Leave the mouse key and this will move the row to the desired location. Once done, you can let go of the SHIFT key

In this example, I have shown you how to move one row, but this method would work just as well for multiple adjacent rows.

So you can select a group of rows and move them all together. However, this method would only work for contiguous rows. It won’t work for non-contiguous rows.

Note: While I have shown you how to rearrange rows using this method, you can also use this to arrange columns as well.

Also read: How to Swap Cells in Excel

Method 2: Using the Cut Copy Method

Another quick way to rearrange rows in Excel is to cut the row (or multiple rows) that you want to move and then paste them to the destination.

Select the row that you want to move. In this case, I am going to select row 10.

Now cut the selected row by right-clicking anywhere on the row and then selecting the ‘Cut’ option (or use the keyboard shortcut Control + X in Windows and Command + X in Mac)

Now select the row above which you want to move the row that you cut

Select the row above which you want to move the cut row

Click on the ‘Home’ tab in the ribbon

Click on the Insert Option

From the dropdown select the option Insert Cut Cells

This will quickly move row 10 to row 7 position

Tip: Using this method you can both insert or replace the rows in Excel. In the above example, I showed you how to insert the row, however, if you want to replace the row with the cut row, use CTRL + V instead of the ‘Insert Cells’ option in step 6.

Also read: How to Convert Columns to Rows in Excel?

Method 3: Insert Row and Cut/Copy Method

This is the simplest way of rearranging the row in Excel (but not the fastest).

In this method, we insert a blank row at the desired location and simply cut/copy and paste the required row to the desired location.

Below are the steps to do this:

Select the row above which you want to insert a blank row. For instance, I am going to select row 7

Right-click anywhere on the selected area and click on insert

A pop-up window opens. Choose the option Entire row

Click Ok and this will insert a blank row in the desired location as shown in the screenshot.

Now select the row that you want to Move

Cut the row by pressing CTRL + X on the keyboard. This will highlight the selection with a dotted border.

Paste the row to the desired location by pressing CTRL + V from the keyboard as shown below.

Now select the empty row.

Right-click anywhere on the selection and click on Delete.

A pop-up window will appear from where you need to select the ‘Entire row’ option.

This deletes the selected row and moves the rest of the rows up. The final result can be seen in the screenshot

If you are a beginner with Microsoft Excel and you are looking for the simplest way to move rows in Excel, you can use this method, but for moving rows quickly, use Method 1 or 2.

Also read: Row vs Column in Excel – What’s the Difference?

Method 4: Rearrange Rows using Sorting

Imagine a situation where you have to rearrange lots of rows based on some sorting criteria.

For instance, sorting the rows based on the region column in your dataset.

In that case, it would be quite tedious and time-consuming to manually rearrange all the rows. So, let’s do it step by step using sorting.

First of all, select the data that you want to rearrange along with the headings.

Now click on the Data tab in the ribbon.

In the Data tab click on the Sort option.

A dialog box gets open showing the sorting options

As we want to sort our data according to Region, so in the ‘Sort by’ dropdown, select Region. Similarly, select Sort On Cells Values and Order A to Z . Hit okay

Doing so will sort all the rows according to the region as shown in the screenshot.

In this example, I rearrange rows by using a simple sorting mechanism, where data is sorted based on the region column.

Similarly, you can sort based on any other column like item, Units, etc. This is the quick method of rearranging multiple rows in a single move.

In this article, we discussed various methods of rearranging rows in Excel.

Each of the methods could be used depending on the nature of the task but I would suggest you employ method 1 if you want to move a couple of rows.

Similarly for rearranging multiple rows based on some sorting criteria use Method 4.

Other articles you may also like:

Method 1: Move the Row using Shift Key and Mouse

Method 2: Using the Cut Copy Method

Method 3: Insert Row and Cut/Copy Method

Method 4: Rearrange Rows using Sorting

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