Sort text list by character length - how?

[masterdiablo13]

Hi!
I am an excel newbie.
I have a text list of last names that I need to sort by character
length. Not alphabetically, I know how to do that, but by number of
letters in the name.
Example, if I have the following list
LAW
OROZCO
MCALLISTER
LUGO
DAVIES
SHOEMAKER
MADISON
RUTHERFORD
NEWSOME
MAGEE

I would need it sorted to

LAW
LUGO
MAGEE
DAVIES
OROZCO
MADISON
NEWSOME
SHOEMAKER
MCALLISTER
RUTHERFORD

I have roughly 75,000 names I am working with, in bunches of 200, so
being able to sort by character length will help me tremendously and
speed things up.
Any help with this is appreciated greatly!
chris

 

[Dave Peterson]

Maybe you could use a helper column with a bunch of formulas that return the
length of the string. Then sort your data by that column.

=len(a1)

will return the number of characters in a1.

 

[CLR]

If this si something you have to do frequently and don't want to use a
helper column, you might consider Jim Cone's fine commercial Add in called
"SpecialSort". It's available at

http://www.realezsites.com/bus/primitivesoftware/products.php

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3