Google Sheets Column Sorter with Google Apps Scripts

I recently wrote a simple two column sorter for Google Sheets in Google Apps Scripts. While there is an example of the Range.sort function on Stackoverflow, it’s for a slighly more complicated use case. Mine is for a very simple case: you want to do a two column sort, you have a header, and you’d like to access it from the Google Sheets mney. You can see it in action here. (Note: you’ll need to be signed in to a Google account and authorize the app to run in order to use the sort function.)

Something to keep in mind about two column sorting: the first column you sort by should be less specific than the second. In my example above, it’s for cities where multiple rows have the same value.

I hope that this can be used by non-technical people who need this functionality, so I’ll call attention to the five variables you’ll need to customize the script. They’re in the sort() function:

/**  Variables for customization:
  
  Each column to sort takes two variables: 
      1) the column index (i.e. column A has a colum index of 1
      2) Sort Asecnding -- default is to sort ascending. Set to false to sort descending
  
  **/
 
  //Variable for column to sort first
  
  var sortFirst = 2; //index of column to be sorted by; 1 = column A, 2 = column B, etc.
  var sortFirstAsc = true; //Set to false to sort descending
  
  //Variables for column to sort second
 
  var sortSecond = 3;
  var sortSecondAsc = false;
  
  //Number of header rows
  
  var headerRows = 1; 
 
  /** End Variables for customization**/

For each column you’ll be sorting, you’ll need to enter the column index (i.e. Column B has an index of 2, Column C and index of 3) for sortFirst and the sortSecondAsc variables. You’ll use sortFirstAsc and sortSecondAsc and whether or not you want to sort it ascending. If you put false, that column will sort descending. Finally, enter the number of header rows in the headerRows variable so they can be excluded from the sort. Make sure these lines end with a semicolon and you’re good to go.