Sorting by case

[bchandz]

My Excel 2003 (on XP Pro) does nor seem to recognize text case when using the Sort function. For instance, my records (rows) are distinguished by having either "a" or "A" in them. Sort does not separate them.
How do I sort them by case, if at all?
Thanks for any help available.

[jakeruby]

one thing you could do (which seems a little excess) is add 2 columns next to your column you are trying to sort. in one put all lowercase "a"s and in the other insert an an if() function in

=IF(cell1=exact(cell2),"X","")

this will return an "X" in the third if the cell has a lowercase "a". Then just sort that third column with the Xs alphabetically then just delete the two columns you added

hope this helps. I tested it should work

[shg]

It's broken.

In another column, =CODE(A1) and copy down. Sort by that and then your alpha data.

[bchandz]

Actually, I need to apologize for stupidity. In the Options under Data - Sort, there's a "Case sensitive" check box which allows the sort. I just hadn't looked for it before I posted. Thanks very much for your replies, though!

A corollary is getting a formula or function to recognize the different case. IF function doesn't distinguish when one says something like
"IF(A1="a", "Yes", "")"; it returns the same with either "a" or "A". I guess one needs to use the Exact function to distinguish?

[captain smith]

Even the Excel programmers put good things in there we never expect