Cell content / formula bar different

[philtyler]

I imported a database from !ACT to excel which included a phone# column

I need to sort the column but many of the phone numbers have the area
code in parentheses (207)-555-1234 so they sort seperately from
207-555-1234.

The problem is when I try to edit the phone# in the cell the ( )
disappears. They aren't in the formula bar either so I can't fix the
problem.

Formatting the whole column as phone numbers doesn't help.

I could retype them all but there are thousands.

Any suggestions why the cell would display and sort one way yet
actually contain something different when selected?

 

[Guest]

Consider changing all values that look like:
(207)-555-1234
into:
2075551234

Then sorting will work normally.


First enter this tiny UDF:

Function dephone(r As Range) As Long
Dim s As String
s = r.Value
s = Replace(s, "(", "")
s = Replace(s, ")", "")
s = Replace(s, "-", "")
dephone = --s
End Function

If your phone numbers are in column A, then in an un-used column enter:

=dephone(A1) and copy down.

Copy this new dephone column and paste as value elsewhere and you are ready
for sorting.