Thread: problem with date sorting

(NOTE: This was previously posted to public.excel group)

Using ASP 3.0, I give the user the ability to create a spreadsheet with a
click. In the resulting spreadsheet, I have 2 columns which contain dates,
and which were created by almost exactly the same code, yet they behave
differently when I try to sort.

First, go to http://www.middletree.net/get.htm and right-click and save the
Excel file, then open it.

Note that the dates in both the Open Date and the Last Modified column look
pretty similar. Now, move the cursor so that you aren't accidentally
highlighting an entire column or anything. From the Excel menu, select Data,
then Sort. In the box that comes up, tell it that you want to sort by TSE,
then by Last Modified.

When you do this, you'll see that the TSE part is correct. However, the
LastModified date is out of order. Specifically, there are some 2005 dates
surrounded by 2006 dates.

Interestingly, this problem doesn't seem to occur in the Open Date column. I
have spent a lot of time looking at my ASP code, but I don't see how these
two columns were built any differently.

Ar any rate, how can I make this so that the dates are sorted correctly?

This problem has been resolved. I had an extra space in there, so it
wouldn't treat it as a date.