How to Group Data in Google Sheets

Wrangling a massive spreadsheet can feel like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Grouping data in Google Sheets allows you to collapse and expand sections of your sheet, transforming a cluttered document into a clean, organized summary. This article will walk you through exactly how to group rows and columns, manage those groups, and use them to make your data much easier to read and analyze.

Why Bother Grouping Data?

Grouping might seem like a simple formatting trick, but it’s a powerful feature for taming large datasets. When you’re staring at hundreds or thousands of rows of sales data, project tasks, or marketing metrics, it's easy to get lost. Grouping helps you create a high-level overview without deleting or hiding the details. You can simply tuck them away until you need them.

Here are the key benefits:

• Improved Readability: Collapsing detailed data (like daily sales figures) under a main category (like a monthly total) makes your report instantly cleaner and easier to skim. Stakeholders can see the big picture first, then expand sections to drill down into the specifics if they want.
• Easier Navigation: Instead of endlessly scrolling, you can quickly jump between major sections of your report. For example, in a yearly budget spreadsheet, you can group all rows related to Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4, allowing you to instantly expand just the quarter you need to review.
• Creating High-Level Summaries: Grouping is perfect for creating "roll-up" style reports. By placing a summary formula (like a SUM or AVERAGE) in a row adjacent to a group, you can create a dynamic summary that's visible even when the detailed rows are collapsed.
• Better Organization for Projects: For a project plan, you can group all the sub-tasks under a main phase or deliverable. This helps your team see the major milestones at a glance while still providing access to the granular task list.

How to Group Rows in Google Sheets: A Step-by-Step Guide

Grouping rows is the most common use case. It’s perfect for organizing lists, financial statements, or any vertically-oriented data. Let's say you have a list of sales transactions sorted by date and want to group them by month.

Creating a Simple Row Group

1. Select the Rows: Click and drag your mouse over the row numbers on the left side of your sheet to highlight all the rows you want to include in a single group. For instance, you might select all the rows containing January sales data. Make sure not to include your header or a summary row you want to keep visible.
2. Navigate to the 'Data' Menu: With the rows highlighted, go to the main menu at the top of the screen and click on Data.
3. Apply the Group: From the Data dropdown menu, hover over Group. A side menu will appear. Click on Group rows [X] - [Y] (the numbers will reflect the rows you've selected).
4. Collapse and Expand: You'll now see a vertical line with a minus sign (–) in the margin next to your grouped rows. Click this minus sign to collapse the rows, hiding them from view. The icon will change to a plus sign (+). Click the plus sign to expand the rows and see the details again.

That's it! You've successfully created your first row group. You can repeat this process for other sections, like grouping all the transactions for February, March, and so on.

Creating Nested Row Groups for More Detail

Nested groups let you create a hierarchy in your data. It’s like creating folders within other folders. For example, you could group daily transactions into weeks, and then group those weekly summaries into a larger monthly group.

1. Create the Innermost Group First: Following the steps above, start by grouping your most granular data. Using our sales example, you would first select the rows for "Week 1" and group them. Then do the same for "Week 2," "Week 3," and "Week 4."
2. Create the Outermost Group: Once you have your smaller, weekly groups created, select the entire range of rows that includes all your weekly groups. For example, select all the rows for January, which now includes the four pre-grouped weekly sections.
3. Apply the Parent Group: Go back to Data > Group > Group rows. Google Sheets will automatically create a new, higher-level group that contains your existing "child" groups.

You'll now see multiple group levels in the left margin. You can collapse the entire month to see a single summary, or you can expand the month but keep each week collapsed. This drill-down visibility is incredibly useful for complex reports.

How to Group Columns in Google Sheets

Grouping columns works exactly like grouping rows, but it's applied horizontally. This is helpful for reports that are wide, like financial models with monthly data stretching across the year or marketing dashboards with metrics for different campaigns spread across columns.

Let's imagine you have a spreadsheet with monthly sales data in separate columns: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, etc., and you want to group them by quarter.

1. Select the Columns: Click and drag your mouse over the column letters (A, B, C...) at the top of your sheet to highlight the columns you want to group. For Q1, you'd select the columns for January, February, and March.
2. Go to the 'Data' Menu: Just like before, click on the Data menu with your columns selected.
3. Select the Group Option: Hover over Group and then click Group columns [X] - [Y].
4. Use the Group Controls: A plus/minus control will now appear above your column headers. You can click it to collapse and expand the columns for that quarter, providing a tidier view focused on quarterly totals or averages you might have in an adjacent column.

You can create nested column groups as well, which is great for organizing a report by Year > Quarter > Month.

Managing and Removing Groups

Sometimes you need to undo a group or modify it. Google Sheets makes this simple.

• Ungrouping a Single Group: To remove a specific group, select any cell within the grouped rows or columns. Navigate back to Data > Group and choose either Ungroup rows or Ungroup Columns. If you have nested groups, it’s best to start by ungrouping the outermost layer first.
• Removing a Group by Right-Clicking: A faster way is to right-click on the plus/minus control bar for the group you want to remove. A menu will appear with the option Remove group.

Tips for Making the Most of Grouping

Using the group feature is easy, but a few best practices can make your spreadsheets even more effective.

1. Always Use a Header Row

Keep your header row (the top row with titles like "Date," "Product," "Sales") separate and do not include it in any group. This ensures your column labels are always visible, giving context to your data whether the rows below are collapsed or expanded.

2. Pair Groups with Summary Formulas

The real power of grouping is unlocked when paired with summary rows or columns. For example, if you're grouping rows 2 through 31 for January's sales, insert a summary row at row 1 (just below your headers) or at row 32. In this row, use a formula like =SUM(C2:C31) to total up the sales column. Now, when you collapse the group, the detailed rows disappear, but your summary row remains visible, showing the total for January.

3. Plan Your Hierarchy

For complex nesting, think about your data hierarchy before you start grouping. Does it make sense to group by Week > Month > Quarter > Year? Or by Region > Country > City? Planning your structure first can save you a lot of time reorganizing groups later on.

4. Use Alternating Colors for Readability

When you have multiple layers of nested groups expanded, the sheet can get busy again. Use the Format > Alternating colors feature to add subtle background shading to every other row. This makes it much easier for the eye to track data across a long, expanded list.

Final Thoughts

Grouping data in Google Sheets is a straightforward but essential skill for anyone looking to create clean, professional, and easy-to-navigate spreadsheets. By organizing your rows and columns into collapsible sections, you can present a high-level summary to your audience while keeping all the important details just a click away.

While organizing data in sheets is a huge step up, the process is still manual. Once you start dealing with data from multiple sources like Google Analytics, your various ad platforms, and your CRM, building reports becomes a time-consuming chore. We built Graphed to solve this problem by automating the entire process. Instead of downloading CSVs and building groups by hand, you connect your accounts once and then use simple, natural language to create real-time, interactive dashboards that update automatically. It turns hours of data wrangling into a 30-second conversation.