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How to Group by Rows in Excel (A Step by Step Guide)

August 17, 2023 1.7K views

Excel is a powerful data analysis software. You can use it to process a large amount of data. However, it takes time to get your desired information quickly when dealing with large spreadsheets containing many columns and rows. You can use the group by rows function to efficiently organise data. However, many users need to learn how to use this function.

This article will give you a detailed description and step-by-step guide on how to group by rows in Excel. We will also recommend the best software to perform group by rows in Excel quickly and efficiently.

Part 1: Why Group Data In Excel?

Grouping many similar items into small groups is called group by rows in Excel. When a spreadsheet contains detailed data about any aspect, there may be many rows containing data. Reading this data might take a lot of work for users. Users are not interested to read all rows; instead, they only want to read important data. Group by rows allows you to group rows into different categories. You can expand each category to view the detailed data.

Similarly, when a spreadsheet contains data calculation, you may not be interested to see all rows; instead, you are only interested in subtotals of each category. You can use group by rows to divide all the rows into subcategories. Below are the different solutions on how to group by rows in Excel.

Part 2: How To Group Rows In Excel? ( Step By Step )

Grouping by rows in Excel is very simple. You can group by rows by following these simple steps.

  • Open the Excel sheet. You can see that we have an enormous list of employees. We are not interested to see all data. So we will group the data by rows.

  • Select your desired number of rows and go to the Data tab.

  • After clicking the data tab, go to the Group icon and click it.

  • Select the Rows option from the pop-up dialogue after clicking the group icon.

  • The rows have been grouped now. You can now click the minus sign to collapse the rows.

  • You can click the plus sign to expand the collapsed or hidden rows.

You can also use the shortcut key Shift+Alt+Right Arrow to group rows in Excel.

Part 3: How To Collapse Rows In Excel?

When you have grouped the rows in Excel, you can collapse and expand the rows easily. First, we will see how to collapse rows in Excel.

  • After grouping the rows, you can see a minus sign on the right side of your sheet. To collapse rows, simply click the minus sign. You can also see outline 1 and 2 in the top right corner of your sheet. Click the “1” to collapse rows.

  • You can also use the Hide details option to collapse rows. Click on any cell in the sub-group, go to the Data tab, and click the Hide details option.

Group Rows in Excel with Expand

When you collapse the rows, all the collapsed rows are hidden. If you want to see the collapsed rows, you can click the plus sign or “2” button to expand the rows.

You can also use the Show Details option to expand the collapsed rows. Go to the Data tab and click the Show Details tab.

Part 4: Best Alternative - WPS Office

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Part 5: How To Group By Rows In WPS Excel?

Here is the step-by-step guide on how to group by rows in Excel. You can use this tutorial to perform group by rows operation WPS Spreadsheet.

  • Open your desired spreadsheet with WPS Office.

  • Select the rows you want to group and click the Data tab.

  • Select the group by rows in the pop-up window.

  • All your selected rows have been grouped. You can collapse and expand the rows by clicking the minus and plus signs, respectively.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q.1 Can I group non-adjacent rows in Excel?

Yes, you can group non-adjacent rows in Excel. You can group non-adjacent rows by selecting the desired rows individually and then applying the group by row function.

Q.2 How do I remove grouping from rows in Excel?

You can remove grouping by selecting the grouped rows and then clicking the Ungroup icon. Simply select the grouped rows you want to ungroup. Then click the Ungroup tab from the Data option. You can also use the Clear Outline option to ungroup rows.

Summary

In this article, we have discussed in detail how to group by rows in Excel. Group by rows is an excellent function of Excel. You can hide the irrelevant data by grouping the rows. You can also expand the hidden rows by clicking the plus button. We have also discussed WPS Office Spreadsheet Software. WPS Office Spreadsheet is an excellent software to manipulate and analyze data.

WPS Office is free to use and is also available for all platforms, including Linux, Windows, Mac OS, Android, and iOS. WPS Office is compatible with all file formats. You can easily open MS Office files using WPS Office. You can also use WPS Office to create stunning presentations and edit and create Word and PDF documents. You can download WPS Office from its official website for free.

15 years of office industry experience, tech lover and copywriter. Follow me for product reviews, comparisons, and recommendations for new apps and software.