There's a fundamental disconnect here that needs to be named: the user has spent hours wrestling with Excel formulas to accomplish something that should be straightforward, pulling data from one sheet to another, sorted alphabetically, with blank cells staying blank. The problem isn't their effort. It's that the tool they're using was designed for a world where data stays in the order you enter it, and where blank cells default to zeros unless you explicitly override them. That's not a user error. That's a design limitation.
What this person is describing is a genuinely common workflow: maintain a master sheet with custom color sorting for visual organization, then generate a secondary view that reorders that data alphabetically while keeping related columns matched. In a traditional spreadsheet, this requires a combination of INDEX, MATCH, SORT, and IF functions, or a pivot table, each with its own syntax quirks and error states. The user attempted formulas, got stuck on blank cells returning zeros, and ended up asking whether they should just abandon their custom sorting entirely. That's the wrong question. The right question is why a modern tool can't handle this with a simple instruction like "take column B from sheet one, sort it alphabetically, and bring the matching values from columns C, D, and E along with it."
This is exactly the kind of task where AI-native spreadsheet technology should shine. Instead of requiring a user to memorize function arguments and troubleshoot why blank cells show 0 instead of nothing, a tool built with AI can interpret the intent: "I want a sorted view that updates automatically, and I want blanks to stay blank." That's a natural language request, not a formula puzzle. The technology exists now to make that interaction possible, and it doesn't require the user to become a spreadsheet expert. What it requires is a shift in how we think about the spreadsheet itself, from a rigid grid of cells that demands manual logic to a dynamic workspace that understands what you mean.
The practical takeaway for anyone reading this is straightforward: if you're spending hours on formula workarounds for sorting, matching, and blank-cell handling, the tool is failing you, not the other way around. Legacy spreadsheets weren't built for this kind of fluid data management. They were built for static ledgers. The fact that you can make them do dynamic lookups with enough nested functions is a testament to user ingenuity, not good design. Look for tools that let you describe what you want in plain language, that understand blank cells as empty rather than zero, and that treat sorting as a property of the view, not a permanent rearrangement of your source data. Your workflow is reasonable. The solution should be, too.