Sort Issue

I'm trying to sort a column of numbers from 1 to, say, 20. Whenever I try to have Excel do this, it sorts the numbers like they are text, i.e. 1, 10, 11, 12... 19, 20, 3, 4, etc.

I've tried changing the cell type from number to string and back again and it doesn't change anything. Am I missing something obvious?

Thanks!

If all you changed was the format to General (not back to Text), that's not
enough (as you saw).

But the next time you change that cell, it'll be a real number.

A quick way to fix a bunch of cells is:
select an empty cell
copy it
select the bunch of cells that are trouble
edit|paste special|check Add



GerbilGod7 wrote:
>
> I'm trying to sort a column of numbers from 1 to, say, 20. Whenever I
> try to have Excel do this, it sorts the numbers like they are text,
> i.e. 1, 10, 11, 12... 19, 20, 3, 4, etc.
>
> I've tried changing the cell type from number to string and back again
> and it doesn't change anything. Am I missing something obvious?
>
> Thanks!
>
> --
> GerbilGod7
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> GerbilGod7's Profile: http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=13073
> View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=391129

--

Dave Peterson

GerbilGod7 wrote...
>I'm trying to sort a column of numbers from 1 to, say, 20. Whenever I
>try to have Excel do this, it sorts the numbers like they are text,
>i.e. 1, 10, 11, 12... 19, 20, 3, 4, etc.
>
>I've tried changing the cell type from number to string and back again
>and it doesn't change anything. Am I missing something obvious?

If Excel sorts them as text, they're text. Changing number format
doesn't
change them from text to number or back again - they're still text.

If you want to sort them as numbers, you need to convert them to
numbers.
The easiest way to do that is to copy a blank cell, select this range,
and Paste > Special, Values, Add.

You need to convert the cell data into number format. To change a
number stored as text to a number format see the following topic.

How to alter data on HTML webpage into Excell cells as numbers?

http://groups.google.co.in/group/mic...d15782c0af2e6d

Thanks
Karthik Bhat
Bangalore

store your DATA in a database so that it wont break existing worksheets
when you change the sort order.

keep your numbers in a field with numeric data types; and you wont ever
have to deal with that kindof crap ever again.