April 15, 2026•1 min read•from Microsoft Excel | Help & Support with your Formula, Macro, and VBA problems | A Reddit Community

Pivot Table not sorting the date column accurately

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Hello Excel enthusiasts, I’m facing a challenge with my pivot table where the date column is sorting alphabetically instead of chronologically. Although my source data is formatted as dates in MMM-YY, the results are not reflecting that. I've sought advice from ChatGPT, but the solutions haven't been reliable. I'm currently resorting to manually arranging the rows in the pivot table, which is quite tedious. I would appreciate any insights or workarounds you've found effective for resolving this sorting issue. Thank you!

Hello excel experts,

i have an issue where sorting my date column in pivot table is not actually sorting by the date but rather sorting alphabetically.

The weird thing is that my source column is definitely a date value in MMM-YY format.

I've asked chatgpt but the answers dont seem reliable.

Was wondering how you guys have worked around such an issue? For now i'm manually arranging the pivot table rows

https://preview.redd.it/op16j8mwwbvg1.png?width=116&format=png&auto=webp&s=787060e6b9eece0f18834462854f13b3f5662b0d

submitted by /u/hamhamham2323
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Pivot Table top bar date filter doesn't update in chronological orderI have a an excel file which I had been building from scratch from a downloaded report every month and am trying to better automate since I do the same type of data filtering each month. I decided to create a table with the data that is linked to a pivot table which sorts and filters it into the format that I need as long as I manually adjust a couple things. However, whenever I add new data to the table, the date filter at the top of the pivot table does not show in chronological order. (Accountant working on April data and need to remove anything that was posted in May.) Theoretically I could use the timeline feature, but I'd rather not. I have resorted the source table in chronological order; I have removed the filter and re-added it in various formats. I've changed the data source, played with various settings. Is there a quick "fix" for this without manually creating the pivot table each time? I have several of these pivot tables on a sheet extracting different data sets sourced from the same table. In one of them, I need to see ONLY the items with a May date, so having to scroll through to check or uncheck the correct dates if they are out of order could lead to errors. Additionally, assuming that this can be corrected. Is there a way for an excel sheet to automatically add or remove row (by hiding or deleting, don't care which) as a pivot table gets longer or shorter so I don't have to guess how many rows I need to add before it cuts into other data below it? Sometimes I need 70+ rows and others only 30. I'm sure there's an overall better way to do what I'm doing. Thanks in advance. https://preview.redd.it/56optogx0qzg1.png?width=406&format=png&auto=webp&s=551180d29effbcfedb7038f60612e33f4e897d3d submitted by /u/inez6453 [link] [comments]

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Pivot Table not sorting the date column accurately

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