How to reverse the order of a list
✓ Verified in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 Google Sheets returned something else (2026-08-30)Flip a column so the last value comes first — without sorting alphabetically.
The formula
| App | Formula | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Excel (desktop) | =SORTBY(A2:A4,ROW(A2:A4),-1) | Excel 365/2021. Works for any values — it reverses position, not sort order. |
| Google Sheets | =SORT(A2:A4,ROW(A2:A4),FALSE) | Google Sheets has no SORTBY — executed 2026-08-30, =SORTBY(A2:A4,ROW(A2:A4),-1) returned #NAME? there against cherry, banana, apple in LibreOffice. Sheets’ own signature is SORT(range, sort_column, is_ascending), whose third argument is a boolean, so FALSE reverses the row numbers. Documented Sheets syntax, carrying no executed result of its own. |
| LibreOffice Calc | =SORTBY(A2:A4,ROW(A2:A4),-1) | Needs LibreOffice 24.8+. |
How it works
SORTBY sorts one range by another: here the list is sorted by its own row numbers in descending order (-1), which simply flips it — cherry, banana, apple. Unlike SORT, this preserves the original arrangement in reverse rather than alphabetizing. In older versions without SORTBY, =INDEX($A$2:$A$4,COUNTA($A$2:$A$4)-ROWS($A$2:A2)+1) filled down does the same.
The Google Sheets alternative
Google Sheets needs different syntax for this task. The formula below is Sheets-specific — it was executed in Google Sheets (2026-08-30) against the same sample data as the worked example, and the value beside it is what Google returned. The LibreOffice column reads n/a because the formula is outside LibreOffice’s dialect, so there is nothing of ours to report there.
| Formula | What it does | Returned by LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 | Returned by Google Sheets (executed 2026-08-30) |
|---|---|---|---|
=SORT(A2:A4,ROW(A2:A4),FALSE) | SORT on the row numbers with a boolean third argument — Google Sheets has no SORTBY | n/a (Sheets-only formula) | cherry, banana, apple Google Sheets alternative (executed 2026-08-30) NOTE: written with the PLAIN function name; the LibreOffice reference run executed the _xlfn. storage form of this formula, so the two runs are not byte-identical inputs |
Verified, not just documented
We ran =SORTBY(A2:A4,ROW(A2:A4),-1) in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 (headless, with forced recalculation) and it returned cherry, banana, apple — exactly the expected result. We then ran the same formulas in Google Sheets, executed 2026-08-30: a formula-only workbook goes into Google Drive, which converts it to a Sheet and recalculates every formula with Google’s own engine, and comes back out as .xlsx carrying the values Google computed. For the worked example Google Sheets returned #NAME?, which is not what LibreOffice returned (cherry, banana, apple) — both values are shown as each engine produced them, and the disagreement itself is the finding. A further 1 row is a Google Sheets alternative: Sheets-specific syntax, executed in Google Sheets only, so the LibreOffice column reads n/a for it. Both engines’ numbers on this page are executed results. The Excel formula follows Microsoft’s official documented syntax — we do not run desktop Excel.
Functions used
SORTBY · ROW · SORT — see full Excel, Google Sheets & LibreOffice compatibility for each.