Sorting order - text and numbers

I have an inventory sheet where items are listed as: BE-01, BE-02..., PE-01,
PE-02... etc. When I add new items I indicate a preliminary inventory as
(ie) BE- in the inventory number column. When I am done I may have several
items that have BE- in the inventory number column. When I sort the
worksheet, all the BE- items end up together, but they sort before BE-01,
BE-02... I want them to sort at the end of the BE group so I can assign an
inventory number by dragging the cursor to continue the series. How can I do
that?

Why not let them just sort to where they will as you will have to sort them
again afterwards.

Use Conditional Formatting to Identify the incomplete ones.
I think you could use a formula like

=AND(Len(a1)>1,len(a1)<4)

More on Conditional Formatting on
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/condfmt.htm

another possibility would be to use Filter
---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"jmt" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> I have an inventory sheet where items are listed as: BE-01, BE-02..., PE-01,
> PE-02... etc. When I add new items I indicate a preliminary inventory as
> (ie) BE- in the inventory number column. When I am done I may have several
> items that have BE- in the inventory number column. When I sort the
> worksheet, all the BE- items end up together, but they sort before BE-01,
> BE-02... I want them to sort at the end of the BE group so I can assign an
> inventory number by dragging the cursor to continue the series. How can I do
> that?

Instead of labeling new entries
BE-
Try using
BE-9999

That'll sure put them at the, wouldn't it ?

And of course, dragging down at least the last 2 old entries will overwrite
the 9999.
--
HTH,

RD

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"jmt" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I have an inventory sheet where items are listed as: BE-01, BE-02...,
PE-01,
> PE-02... etc. When I add new items I indicate a preliminary inventory as
> (ie) BE- in the inventory number column. When I am done I may have
several
> items that have BE- in the inventory number column. When I sort the
> worksheet, all the BE- items end up together, but they sort before BE-01,
> BE-02... I want them to sort at the end of the BE group so I can assign
an
> inventory number by dragging the cursor to continue the series. How can I
do
> that?