sorting numbers in excel 2000

[james johnstone]

I have a list of a little over 12,000 numbers i want to
sort in ascending order (ie. lowest to highest number). i
use the sort function and the list returned isn't in
ascending order. for instance my list sorts the numbers
from 10,000 to 28,000 and then starts at 5,000 and goes to
9,999. and throughout the list, numbers such as 12518,
125181, 125183, and 12519 will follow each other. i'd
like the 12518 to be followed by 12519 and 125181 followed
by 125183 so numbers are in ascending order. I've read
that excel sorts numbers in certain order, how do i
circumvent the default sort process and make it work the
way i'd like it to.

thank you
james

 

[Andy B]

james

It sounds to me like your 'numbers' are actually text. That would explain
why the sort seems strange. One way to make your 'numbers' into real numbers
is to copy a blank unused cell, select your range of 'numbers' and then
Paste Special/Add
Make a copy before you start, just in case!

Andy.

 

[Dave Peterson]

The biggest problem with sorting numbers is when part of the data is really
numbers and part of the data is text (masquerading as numbers--like '123
(apostrophe makes it text)).

One quick way of converting text numbers to number numbers is to select an empty
cell and copy it.

Select your range of cells and do
edit|paste special|and check Addition under operation.

If that doesn't work, maybe you copied from a web site and you have those HTML
non-breaking spaces in it.

You could use David McRitchie's Trimall macro that cleans things up.

http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/join.htm#trimall
(look for "Sub Trimall()")

David also has instructions on how to install a macro and run it at:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm

 

[james johnstone]

thanks alot andy, that worked great.

-----Original Message-----
james

It sounds to me like your 'numbers' are actually text. That would explain
why the sort seems strange. One way to make

your 'numbers' into real numbers