Soritng with text strings prefixed with single quote

[jjk98]

In a question yesterday (thanks for the help) I noted that I could not find
any difference in the handling of text prefixed with a single quote. Now I
have found a very significant difference.

If the string is prefixed with a single quote it always comes before the
identical text without the quote in a sort on that field. For example if one
has the data

abc A
abc B
abc C
'abc A
'abc B
'abc C

and I sort on the first column, and then the second, the order above is not
changed where I would expect to find the resutl to be

abc A
'abc A
abc B
'abc B
abc C
'abc C

ALL of the fields are explicitly typed as text. The worksheet has 15,000
rows and 15 columns and the leading quote appears to be randomly used
throughout.

How do I make sort work properly?

 

[Mike H]

I get the result that you expect to get

 

[jjk98]

Must be something else in the text then, I'll keep looking...

Thanks!