Sorting odd numbers

[Diana Morrison]

We use a numbering system to sort certain data, i.e.
2007-1 where 2007 is the year, 1 is just a number - it could go up to 1000
2008-1 same as above.
How do I sort this using autofilter? Seems so simple...I've tried to
customize the formatting but couldn't find anything that works.
Thanks,
Diana

 

[Tyro]

I sort without filtering fine. With filtering, I sort fine too. I guess I
don't understand what you're trying to accomplish. Examples would be
helpful.

Tyro

 

[Tyro]

Also, your subject is Sorting odd numbers. By odd do you mean numbers such
as 1,3,5,7 - ie odd numbers as opposed to even numbers such as 2,4,6,8?

Tyro

 

[Barb Reinhardt]

I'm guessing you have numbers like

2007-1
2007-10
2007-100

These are text. If you want them to sort "properly", you'll need numbers
like this

2007-001
2007-002
2007-010
2007-011
2007-100
2007-101

 

[Sean Timmons]

I just typed in a few into Excel, and it sorted fine...

2007-1
2007-56
2008-20

Do you want it to sort a different way?

And, just making sure, do you want to actually sort the rows? For that, you
use data - sort, not data - filter...

 

[Dave Peterson]

You chose nice data <vbg>:

2007-1
2007-1111
2007-56
2008-200133
2007-5655
2008-20

 

[Diana Morrison]

Hello everyone, I've obviously done a terrible job of explaining myself...

2007-1 is year 2007, # 1 is the 1st issue
2007-34 34 is the 34th issue
2007-355 etc.
2008-1
2008-2
2008-3

with an autofilter on each column of the spreadsheet. When I sort in
ascending order (or decending) I get bizzarre results - nothing really in
numerical order. see below.

2008-46
2007-2
2007-7
2007-8
2008-1
2008-10

This happens no matter what I format the cells to.

Diana

 

[Sean Timmons]

The below sorted as

2007-1
2007-1111
2007-56
2007-5655
2008-20
2008-200133

for me.. Wouldn't that be right?

 

[Sean Timmons]

There isn't a space before any of those weird numbers, is there?

 

[Tyro]

The numbers you posted sort in this sequence for me.

2007-2
2007-7
2007-8
2008-1
2008-10
2008-46

Tyro

 

[Diana Morrison]

that's what I'd like to see, ideally. Two of us have tried to sort in
decending / ascending order using autofiler and can't get it to work.

 

[Sean Timmons]

Just for safety's sake, highlight that column, go to Edit - find - Replace
tab - put a single space in the fin portion and leave the replace section
blank. Click the Replace All button. Then try the sorting...

 

[Sean Timmons]

Oh, and another thought, if you see a green triangle on the top left of these
cells, click on the yellow triangle that appears and select Convert to Number.

 

[Dave Peterson]

I would have guessed that it wasn't right.

I would have guessed:
2007-1
2007-56
2007-1111
2007-5655
2008-20
2008-200133

So it sorts by year, then by issue.

I think I'd put the values in separate columns (even using data|text to columns,
delimited by hyphen) and then sort by those two columns.

 

[Diana Morrison]

Dave, I'm going with your suggestion - can't get anything else to work.
Thanks for the input everyone.
Diana