Date sorting not working?

[sarjak]

Hello all,

I am working with a 5 column/35 line spreadsheet and need to sort th
contents by date (column E). I have made sure that the column i
formatted for date (ex format>cells>DATE>03/01/05). When I select th
columns go to DATA > SORT > Column e ascending it sorts up until lin
30 or so then it just does the willy nilly thing. I cannot figure ou
why this simple function is giving me more greys. Any ideas?

Thanks
Tracy
:confused

 

[Guest]

I'd be suspicious that some of your 'dates' are acutally text values
masquerading as dates.

Check the ones that don't sort correctly, maybe even re-entering them. Then
try sorting them again

 

[Guest]

Dear Sarjak

I'd recommend using a different feature.

Try auto filtering on your header row

Data --> Filter --> Autofilter

This will give you a little more control over sorting your columns. It's an
easy and quick feature.

Let me know if you still have the same problem sorting it this way.

(e-mail address removed)

 

[Niek Otten]

Hi Sarjak,

Probably the >30 cells are text, not dates/numbers although they may look
like dates and are formatted as such.
You can easily check with the ISNUMBER() function. If so, do the following:
Format an empty cell as number. Copy. Select your "Dates". Paste special,
check Add. Re-format as date.

BTW, 03/01/95; is that January or March?
You don't happen to expect the column to sort just on day, do you?

 

[sarjak]

*Thank you* all for your responses.
The Autofilter didn't work.
And the field "seemed" to be formatted as a date/number.
I re-entered it and tried AGAIN and low and behold it worked.

Thanks again for all the input!

Tracy


BTW: 03/01/05 is March

 

[Peo Sjoblom]

Or format empty cell as date before copying and do it in one fell swoop! <g>