Sorting Numbers with letter suffixes

[Terry Bennett]

Is there a way I can sort numbers such that if I have a letter suffix (ie;
2A, 3B, etc), they are sorted after the original number, ie; 2A between 2
and 3 then 3B between 3 and 4?

Thanks.

 

[Max]

One way which might suffice, presuming data as posted is representative

Assuming data in A1 down
Put in B1, copy down:
=IF(A1="","",IF(ISNUMBER(A1),A1,LEFT(A1)+CODE(LEFT(A1))/10^10))
Then select both cols A & B, sort by col B, ascending

 

[Terry Bennett]

Thanks Max.

I see your logic but this sorts all digits begining with a '1' first ...
hence 112 comes before 2. In the case of 2, 2A, etc it seems to sort these
randomly within the digits begining with 2s.

 

[Max]

well, the caveat was:

.. presuming data as posted is representative

Since you have now extended the scope,
hang around awhile for better solutions from others

---

 

[MartinW]

Hi Terry,

Maybe this.

First up sort ascending on your data in col A.
This will leave your numbers sorted in the top of the
column and your text sorted at the bottom of the column

Copy the numbers across to column B. Then with the text
values, for this example let's say that the first text entry is in A9.
Put this in B9 and drag down to the end of your data.
=LEFT(A9,1)*1
You may need something different depending
on what your actual data is. What you want is to extract
the numbers without the letters, and to convert the
text numbers to real numbers (that's the *1 bit)

Then in col. C we pinch a bit of Max's formula.
Put this in C1 and drag down to the end of your data
=B1+ROW()/10^10

Now select all three columns A,B and C
and sort on col. C ascending.
Hopefully col A should be sorted the way you want.

HTH
Martin

 

[Terry Bennett]

Thanks for the suggestion Martin but it still sorts numbers like 12B ahead
of single digits like 2 and 3.

Not a problem - I can get around it manually.

I do appreciate your suggestion - many thanks.

 

[Bernd P]

Hello,

If I understand the problem correctly Max was almost there:
=IF(A1="","",IF(ISNUMBER(A1),A1,--LEFT(A1)+CODE(LEFT(A1))/10^10))

If there can be more than one letter suffix I suggest to use
RegExpReplace to separate numerical and text parts...

Regards,
Bernd

 

[MartinW]

Well no it doesn't Terry,

If you change the extraction formula to this,
=LEFT(A9,LEN(A9)-1)*1

It will sort this column
1
3B
7C
12B
2
5
7A
6C
7B
12A
4
5A
4B
3A
6B
7
3C
124A
7D
124B

Like this
1
2
3A
3B
3C
4
4B
5
5A
6B
6C
7
7A
7B
7C
7D
12A
12B
124A
124B

Is that not what you are trying to do?

Regards
Martin

 

[Terry Bennett]

Thanks again guys for the suggestions - much appreciated.

Terry