Sortofa sorting problem.....

[gcanders]

I tried to sort the following in Excel, but this is what I got:

1) HD 1694.C2 H83 1992
2) HD 4464.L7 H64
3) HD 4464.L7 K33 1982
4) HD1387 .A663 1996
5) HD259 .H43 1999
6) HD7293 .S675 1999

Line 5 should be before line 4. Is there a way for Excel to do this? By the by - these are card catalog numbers (in case you were curious). Thanks.......

 

[VoG]

Have yu tried selecting your range then Data/Sort ?

 

[normpam]

The problem is that the numbers in the catalog number are viewed by Excel as text, not values. Since "1" comes before "2", Excel will always sort the 1's first. I don't know all the possible answers, but if the catalog entries can be split up into separate columns (ie: HD in 'A'; 1239 in column 'B" etc) then you could perform the sort operation as you want.

 

[gcanders]

Yes - I tried doing the data-sort and the results were posted on the original message. I seem to recall this might be a vba problem (by problem, I mean my experience with vba is a bit limited - but I'm happy to learn).

 

[gcanders]

NORMPAM: The problem with catalog numbers is that I can't simply split them (text to columns), because the letter part of the number varies (i.e. sometimes it's 1 digit, or 2 (as in my example), etc.). Thanks for your reply, though.

 

[normpam]

If you would like to send me a sample file, I might be able to come up with a solution.

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