How can you set up several sorting rules in Excel to sort a column?

Question

I got a list of mail addresses, let's say we have the list

[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

In Excel, how can I set up 2 rules of sorting? I like the first sort rule say that we sort alphabetically after the @ symbol.

The second sorting rule says that if the part after the @ symbol is same, then sort the part before the @ alphabetically.

So basically, the list above would look like that if we applied these 2 sorting rules:

[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

I know how to set up the first rule in Excel at least. It's done by selecting the column to be sorted, copying it twice to another two columns, then in the second column select all mail addresses, press "Text in Columns" the seperate the mails when you see the symbol @. Then you have in the very first column the actual mail address, the second column you have the part before the @, the third column you have the part after the @. Now just let the column of the after @ part sort and you are done.

But I have no idea how to take both rules into account at the same time...? :S

I really hope my question is clear because else I will have a very long day tomorrow at work :P

Answer 1

You're almost there, you need to setup a second level of sorting (by clicking on "Add level":

The sorted e-mails:

Note that each level's sort order is independent of the other levels

Answer 2

You can set up cell B1 as Mid(A1, Pos(A1, '@') + 1, Len(A1) - Pos(A1, '@') and then copy it down the column. Then copy column B and paste-by-value onto itself. Then sort using column B (email domains) as top level and column A as second level.