Question

i have a string separated by commas, is it possible to use an excel formula to sort within the values within the cell?

Answer 1

Here’s a solution (quicksort code stolen from here). You would just wire up a button to the SortVals macro and you could just click the button and it’ll sort the comma separated values in the active cell.

Option Explicit

Public Sub SortVals()
    Dim i As Integer
    Dim arr As Variant
    arr = Split(ActiveCell.Text, ",")

    ' trim values so sort will work properly
    For i = LBound(arr) To UBound(arr)
        arr(i) = Trim(arr(i))
    Next i

    ' sort
    QuickSort arr, LBound(arr), UBound(arr)

    ' load sorted values back to cell
    Dim comma As String
    comma = ""
    ActiveCell = ""
    For i = LBound(arr) To UBound(arr)
        ActiveCell = ActiveCell & comma & CStr(arr(i))
        comma = ","
    Next i
End Sub

Public Sub QuickSort(vArray As Variant, inLow As Long, inHi As Long)

  Dim pivot   As Variant
  Dim tmpSwap As Variant
  Dim tmpLow  As Long
  Dim tmpHi   As Long

  tmpLow = inLow
  tmpHi = inHi

  pivot = vArray((inLow + inHi) \ 2)

  While (tmpLow <= tmpHi)

     While (vArray(tmpLow) < pivot And tmpLow < inHi)
        tmpLow = tmpLow + 1
     Wend

     While (pivot < vArray(tmpHi) And tmpHi > inLow)
        tmpHi = tmpHi - 1
     Wend

     If (tmpLow <= tmpHi) Then
        tmpSwap = vArray(tmpLow)
        vArray(tmpLow) = vArray(tmpHi)
        vArray(tmpHi) = tmpSwap
        tmpLow = tmpLow + 1
        tmpHi = tmpHi - 1
     End If

  Wend

  If (inLow < tmpHi) Then QuickSort vArray, inLow, tmpHi
  If (tmpLow < inHi) Then QuickSort vArray, tmpLow, inHi

End Sub