SORT

Quirk found

Category: Lookup and reference · Last tested 2026-09-01

Real compatibility results for the SORT function: executed in Excel for the web, Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc, with desktop Excel behavior from Microsoft’s official documentation (we do not run desktop Excel — Excel for the web is a different application and is executed separately). Syntax and links to that documentation are below.

✓ Supported in LibreOffice since 24.8.7.2. We ran SORT under every LibreOffice release we test (24.2.0.3, 24.8.7.2, 25.2.0.3, 25.8.7.3): it returned #NAME? (unrecognized) in 24.2.0.3 and first works in 24.8.7.2. If you need SORT in LibreOffice Calc, use 24.8.7.2 or newer.

Support matrix

Engine	Documented	Live-tested	Verdict
Excel (desktop)	Yes	No — documented only	n/a
Excel for the web	—	Yes (recalc, 2026-09-01)	Supported, behaves as documented
Google Sheets	Yes	Yes (Drive import, 2026-08-29)	Quirk found
LibreOffice Calc	Yes	Yes (25.8.7.3, 2026-07-29)	Supported, behaves as documented

LibreOffice version history

We executed the same test cases under each LibreOffice release to show exactly when SORT’s support changed — not documentation claims, real results.

LibreOffice version	Verdict	Tested
24.2.0.3	Unsupported (not recognized)	2026-08-29
24.8.7.2	Supported, behaves as documented	2026-08-29
25.2.0.3	Quirk found	2026-08-29
25.8.7.3	Supported, behaves as documented	2026-07-29

Why isn't SORT working in LibreOffice?

If SORT returns a #NAME? error in LibreOffice Calc, you are almost certainly running a release older than 24.8.7.2 — that is exactly what our executed tests show: #NAME? in 24.2.0.3, working from 24.8.7.2 onward. Check your version under Help → About LibreOffice and upgrade to 24.8.7.2 or newer; no setting or extension enables it in older releases. (Other causes of this error: see the error values guide.)

Why isn’t SORT working in Google Sheets?

SORT runs in Google Sheets, but our executed cases show it does not match Excel’s documented behavior on every input (the failing cases are listed on this page). If a formula that behaves one way in Excel gives you a different answer in Sheets, compare your usage against those cases before assuming your data is wrong.

Google Sheets: 1 case inconclusive. Our corpus is an Excel-authored .xlsx, and Google’s importer does not map every OOXML storage prefix (_xlfn., _xlfn._xlws., _xlpm.) — nor does the .xlsx export preserve full float precision or a blank result. Where the disagreement is explained by that round trip we report it as inconclusive rather than as a Sheets behavior. Google documents this function, so the result is not evidence of missing support. See the methodology page for the full caveat and the planned re-run with plain function names.

Discovered quirks

=SORT(A1:A5,1,-1) on Google Sheets returned 1, but the documented/expected result is {5, 4, 3, 1, 1}.
Provenance
MISMATCH vs expected: value mismatch: expected 5, got 1

Executed test cases

Excel for the web (executed 2026-09-01 via OneDrive recalculation)

These values come from Excel for the web, not from desktop Excel. They are two different implementations of the calculation engine, and this run measured only the web one: the corpus was uploaded to OneDrive as .xlsx, recalculated by Excel for the web on open, and downloaded again for readback. Excel for the web is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so the run is identified by its date. Where a value here disagrees with the Expected column — which is Microsoft’s documentation of the desktop product — we cannot tell you whether the web engine diverges from the desktop one or the documentation is wrong about both, because we do not run desktop Excel.

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=SORT(A1:A5)	Default sort_index=1, ascending	{1, 1, 3, 4, 5}	{1, 1, 3, 4, 5}	Matched
=SORT(A1:A5,1,-1)	Explicit descending sort order	{5, 4, 3, 1, 1}	{5, 4, 3, 1, 1}	Matched
=SORT(A1:B3,2,1)	2D range sorted by its second column ascending	{y, 10, z, 20, x, 30}	{{y, 10}, {z, 20}, {x, 30}}	Matched
=SORT(A1:A1)	Sorting a single blank cell (degenerate case)	0	0 Provenance Blank cell sorts as 0 in numeric context; no error expected	Matched

Google Sheets (executed 2026-08-29 via Drive import)

Google Sheets is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so this run is identified by its date. The corpus was imported to Drive as .xlsx, recalculated by Sheets, and exported back for readback.

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=SORT(A1:A5)	Default sort_index=1, ascending	{1, 1.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0}	{1, 1, 3, 4, 5}	Matched
=SORT(A1:A5,1,-1)	Explicit descending sort order	{1, 1.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0}	{5, 4, 3, 1, 1}	Mismatch
=SORT(A1:B3,2,1)	2D range sorted by its second column ascending	{y, 10.0, z, 20.0, x, 30.0}	{{y, 10}, {z, 20}, {x, 30}}	Matched
=SORT(A1:A1)	Sorting a single blank cell (degenerate case)		0 Provenance Blank cell sorts as 0 in numeric context; no error expected	Inconclusive

LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-07-29)

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=SORT(A1:A5)	Default sort_index=1, ascending	{1, 1, 3, 4, 5}	{1, 1, 3, 4, 5}	Matched
=SORT(A1:A5,1,-1)	Explicit descending sort order	{5, 4, 3, 1, 1}	{5, 4, 3, 1, 1}	Matched
=SORT(A1:B3,2,1)	2D range sorted by its second column ascending	{y, 10, z, 20, x, 30}	{{y, 10}, {z, 20}, {x, 30}}	Matched
=SORT(A1:A1)	Sorting a single blank cell (degenerate case)	0	0 Provenance Blank cell sorts as 0 in numeric context; no error expected	Matched

Docs & syntax

Excel (desktop): official documentation
Google Sheets: official documentation
LibreOffice Calc: official documentation

Related how-to recipes

Where SORT behaves differently

Which LibreOffice version for VSTACK, TEXTSPLIT, TAKE & DROP?
VSTACK, HSTACK, TEXTSPLIT, TAKE and DROP return #NAME? in LibreOffice 24.2, 24.8 and 25.2 - our executed runs show all fourteen working only from 25.8.7.3. Full version map by wave.
SORT descending in Google Sheets: is_ascending vs sort_order
Excel's SORT takes a numeric sort_order (1/-1); Google Sheets' third argument is a boolean is_ascending. Executed, =SORT(A2:A4,1,-1) returns 10, 20, 50 in Google Sheets against 50, 20, 10 in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 - ascending, with no error anywhere. The fix is FALSE.
Your function exists but your file cannot say so: _xlfn storage tokens
Executed: eight IM* functions LibreOffice implements return #NAME? on all four builds because it cannot read Excel's _xlfn. token for them, while COT and CSC only work under that same prefix. Eleven LibreOffice aliases are erased by its own exporter, and a token change between 24.2 and 24.8 makes a 24.8-written file open as #NAME? in 24.2.
openpyxl and _xlfn.XLOOKUP: why your XLOOKUP opens as #NAME?
openpyxl writes formula text verbatim, so =XLOOKUP(...) is stored in the .xlsx under its plain name. Executed 2026-09-12: that cell is #NAME? in Excel for the web and in all four pinned LibreOffice builds, while =_xlfn.XLOOKUP(...) returns 20 in Excel for the web and in LibreOffice 24.8, 25.2 and 25.8.