HOW TO

Sort features North/South or East/West for Export

Last Published: April 25, 2020

Summary

Instructions provided describe how to prepare data to sort features' attributes from North to South, South to North, East to West, or West to East in Excel.

Procedure

If the X and Y fields are already in a feature class, right-click the feature in the Table of Contents, click Open Attribute table, and skip to step 6.

  1. Open a new Map Document. Add the feature class or shapefile.
  2. Right-click the feature class > Open Attribute table.
  3. Click Options > Add Field. Set the name of the field to X, and the type to Double. Click OK.
  4. Click Options > Add Field. Set the name of the field to Y, and the type to Double. Click OK.
  5. Right-click the field header for X > Calculate Geometry. Set the property to X coordinate, and set the desired unit (e.g. Decimal Degrees or Feet). Click OK. Repeat this step except for the Y field and the Y coordinate.
  6. Click Options > Export.
  7. Open the table in Excel.
  8. Sort the features:

    North to South > Right-click the Y field, sort Ascending.
    South to North > Right-click the Y field, sort Descending.
    East to West > Right-click the X field, sort Ascending.
    West to East > Right-click the X field, sort Descending.
  9. Save the table as .xls or .dbf.

Article ID: 000009825

Software:
  • ArcMap 9 x

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