This problem occurs because the way that work functions like QUERY, IMPORTRANGE, among others, that return an array of values instead of single values. While we see each value on different cells, they actually are "tied" together.

To avoid this problem, we should not sort manually the results of formula because, as the OP already found, "results are unpredictable".

If you are using QUERY you could use ORDER BY clause to sort values. Another alternative that keep the reference to the source range is to use nest QUERY inside a SORT function.

In some cases, doing a copy / paste / manipulate data and repeat could be the better approach.

This problem occurs because the way that works functions like QUERY, IMPORTRANGE, among others, that returns an array of values instead of single values. While we see each value on different cells, they actually are "tied" together.

To avoid this problem, we should not sort manually the results of formula because, as the OP already found, "results are unpredictable".

If you are using QUERY you could use ORDER BY clause to sort values. Another alternative that keeps the reference to the source range is to use nest QUERY inside a SORT function.

In some cases, doing a copy / paste / manipulate data and repeat could be the better approach.

We should not sort manually the results of formula because, as the OP already found, results are unpredictable.

If you are using QUERY you could use ORDER BY clause to sort values. Another alternative is to use the SORT function.

This problem occurs because the way that work functions like QUERY, IMPORTRANGE, among others, that return an array of values instead of single values. While we see each value on different cells, they actually are "tied" together.

To avoid this problem, we should not sort manually the results of formula because, as the OP already found, "results are unpredictable".

If you are using QUERY you could use ORDER BY clause to sort values. Another alternative that keep the reference to the source range is to use nest QUERY inside a SORT function.

In some cases, doing a copy / paste / manipulate data and repeat could be the better approach.