Issues with sorting

[Matthew McManus]

I have been having some problems with sorting columns of numbers whe
the column includes blank cells. Some of the blank cells are ther
because nothing has been entered, while others are set to blank by
formula.
eg. in A1, =if(B1="","",B1). When I sort, some of the blanks appea
above the numbers in the sort, others below.

This will also happen if I copy and Paste Special - Values. The blan
cells in the new column all appear as if they have nothing in them, bu
the ones which originally came from formulae are sorted differently t
the ones that were "real blanks".

Has anyone else experienced this, and does anyone know a way around it
so that all cells with no value in them are treated similarly by th
sort?

Thanks

Matthe

 

[Dave Peterson]

I'd use another helper column:

=if(c1="",rept("z",255),c1)

Then sort by that.

(Or whatever character would sort the data the way you want.)