Unwanted Number Sorting Order

[Guest]

Hello,

I was baffled by the results Excel spitted out for me today. I was sorting
numbers and Excel seems to be sorting it by its first digit then second and
so forth. I checked that all the numbers are under "General" format and
there was nothing special I have done to alter Excel's sorting settings.

An example of what I am talking about:
Say I want to sort the following numbers: "1,2,100,200"
Excel would spit out "1,100,2,200" for me and I really don't want that.

Is there anything I can do to make it sort according to normal numerical
orders again?

 

[Guest]

That's really strange Erica.

If I open a new file, type 1, 2, 100, 200 below each other, sort them
ascending, then they come out fine.

 

[Guest]

Hi Erica,
Seems as though Excel still thinks these are text.
Assuming that these "numbers" are in column A, highlight column A to select
the entire column. Go to Data > Text to Columns... and then click on Next,
Next, and Finish.
See if that fixes your sorting.