Numbers don't sort properly

[pick44]

My sample file is attached. Need to sort from smallest to largest. Thank you

[AliGW]

Which column are you wanting to sort?

Many of the numbers in column A are just text (that's why they have a green triangle top left) - is this the column causing you problems?

[MrShorty]

I'm not certain exactly what you are looking for, but, an ISTEXT(A3) [copied down and across] function shows that some of the values in column A are numbers stored as text. I would guess that is the cause for Excel sorting incorrectly, and I expect the solution is to convert all the numbers stored as text to real numbers. Strategies for converting numbers stored as text to numbers here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...1-c5bad0f0a885

[pick44]

Column B is the one I need to sort from smallest to largest.

[AliGW]

Select A3 to B9.

Data ribbon | Sort ...

Select Column B from the drop-down.

AliGW on MS365 Insider (Windows) 32 bit

	A	B
3	65486546	2
4	65486546	2
5	20210502545	4
6	20210502233	4
7	20210502238	4
8	20210502347	4
9	20210502423	4
10	20210502520	4
11	20210502586	4
12	20210502220	8
13	20210502242	8
14	20210502243	8
15	20210502287	8
16	20210502298	8
17	20210502318	8
18	20210502321	8
19	20210502326	8
20	65486546	8
21	20210700538	14
22	20210700557	14
23	20210502351	15
24	20210502522	15
25	20210502402	18
26	20210502221	20
27	20210502245	20
28	20210502361	20
29	20210502398	20

Sheet: Sheet1

[pick44]

Yes. Thank you. The sample file does sort?

However, my Master File still does not sort. I will send a sample of that file itself and not a copied sample file.

[AliGW]

I can't see a problem. Works fine. Did you select the entire dataset before sorting?

[pick44]

Yes selected the entire database. Must be some issue on my system? I checked Unmerge; UnFreeze; and formatted as Number. Any ideas what I may be missing?

[pick44]

Found the problem. Some of the cels in Column A were blank. And when I highlighted the cells, I did the short cut method and did not pick up all the cells below the ones with a blank cell in A. Live and Learn. Your comments about "Did you select the entire database", made me relook. Thanks, blessings,

[AliGW]

Thanks for the rep.

[pick44]

Your welcome. Just opened another large file to convert. This time I did highlighted all cells. And the B column will not sort. It seems to think it is TEXT, even though I formatted it as Number. Ideas?

[AliGW]

It's probably text. Do you see a green triangle?

Formatting as a number - did this add .00 to the numbers? If not, then they are not numbers. Formatting doesn't actually convert.

[pick44]

No, don't see a green triangle. But I think they are text as they do not sort

[AliGW]

I can't say for sure. Are they right or left-aligned?

[pick44]

The numbers came about using the formula Vlookup. To match a crime description to a set of number codes. I then formatted the results as numbers. So, it could be in the way the formula saved them?

[AliGW]

What's the formula? You forget that I am working blind here!

Again - formatting as a number does not make anything into a number!

[pick44]

That was the issue. When I used the Vlookup, I did not format the cells for numbers properly. They were formatted as General. That carried over and did not format as a number. I redid, and formatted the Vlookup column for the code number , as a number. And when I ran the formula and the code number appeared on my large data file column, they sorted.

[AliGW]

Great.