Sorting issue

Short and sweet . . . can this be done?

A column has (ex) 300 rows of numbers and I want to sort them.

How can I get around Excel's formatting?

Instead of getting . . .

1
10
11
. . . . .
19
2
20
21
. . . .
3
30
31
etc . . .

I want
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
etc

I'm guessing that your data is numbers entered/ displaying as text which prevents you from using the normal sort button.

To fix this, do the following:

In a blank cell enter 1 then copy it > select all the cells you wish to sort> right click > Paste special > Multiply

This should convert your data to numbers which can then be sorted using the normal sort toolbar button.

Hope this helps.

That's not what I mean. There is a format Excel uses. 2 will come right before 20, not before 3. 3 is before 30, not 4.

Sort this columb
MM4 BB1 BB1
MM3 becomes BB10 should be BB2
MM2 BB11 BB4
MM1 BB2 BB5
GG3 BB29 BB9
GG2 BB30 BB10
GG1 BB31 BB11
BB5 BB4 BB29
BB4 BB5 BB30
BB2 BB9 BB31
BB1 GG1 GG1
MM32 GG10 GG2
MM31 GG11 GG3
MM30 GG18 GG5
MM29 GG19 GG9
MM21 GG2 GG10
MM20 GG20 GG11
MM19 GG21 GG18
MM11 GG22 GG19
MM10 GG3 GG20
MM9 GG40 GG21
GG5 GG5 GG22
GG9 GG9 GG40
GG10 MM1 MM1
GG11 MM10 MM2
GG18 MM11 MM3
GG19 MM19 MM4
GG20 MM2 MM9
GG21 MM20 MM10
GG22 MM21 MM11
GG40 MM29 MM19
BB31 MM3 MM20
BB30 MM30 MM21
BB29 MM31 MM29
BB11 MM32 MM30
BB10 MM4 MM31
BB9 MM9 MM32

That didn't format correctly when posted.

See how the 2 comes before 20? 10 is after 1.

BB1
BB10
BB11
BB2
BB29

should be

BB1
BB2
BB4
BB5
BB9

I tried the "multiply" idea. I changed the column to text. And I changed it to number. I get the same results.

BB1
BB10
BB100
BB101
BB102
BB103
BB104
BB105
BB106
BB107
BB108
BB109
BB11
BB110
BB111
BB112
BB12
BB13