How do I reorder my chart by date when the date includes text & 2-digit year?

[lilredrider]

I'm creating a chart (bar graph) that needs to sort the following information chronologically, by period.

I don't understand if it's the 2-digit year or the combined numbers and text but Excel is sorting it as pictured here, ignoring the year. My instructor clicked a few boxes and got it to sort correctly, but now I can't duplicate what he did.

I've tried formatting the data as text, I've tried breaking out the year using text-to-columns and making it a 4-digit year but it still reverts to sorting it by month and day, ignoring the year. I know there's a setting to fix this sort problem. Loosing my mind here. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm using Excel 2010 on a PC.

Period	cases
4 WEEKS ENDING 01/08/11	270
4 WEEKS ENDING 01/09/10	586
4 WEEKS ENDING 01/10/09	562
4 WEEKS ENDING 01/12/08	513
4 WEEKS ENDING 01/13/07	432
4 WEEKS ENDING 01/14/06	392
4 WEEKS ENDING 01/15/05	296

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[BobUmlas]

user a helper column - in C2, enter: =1*right(B2,8)
and fill down. You can format it as m/d/yyyy if you wish, then sort on that column

 

[lilredrider]

Thank you BobUmlas!

This is my first post, can I mark it as solved now? I don't see that option.