Sorted Unique Departments via SORT(UNIQUE(...))

You're an HR analyst building a dropdown source for a department-filter widget. The roster has 15 employees (columns A–C: EmployeeID, Name, Department) and the department column has plenty of repeats. The widget needs the sorted, distinct list of department names in column E.

Your task:

1. In E2, write a single chained formula that takes UNIQUE then SORTs. The result spills down — don't drag.

The spill range (E2:E6) must be empty before the formula runs; any content in E3:E6 produces #SPILL!.

There are 5 distinct departments in the data; the result spills into E2:E6.

The pre-365 idiom — extract uniques via complex INDEX/MATCH/COUNTIF formulas, then sort with helper rank columns — was the standard interview question for years. UNIQUE + SORT chain in one cell is the modern equivalent that just works.

Graded cells: E2 (=Engineering, alphabetically first), E4 (=HR, third), E6 (=Sales, last).