sorting by the first 3 digits in a column

[jebadiah]

I have more than one column that has the following kind of content:

1 ------ nba
11 ------ ball
12 ------ bell
122 ------ hi
2 ------ nec
3 ------ hello

how do i sort such that the biggest number comes up first:

122 ------ hi
12 ------ bell
11 ------ ball
3 ------ hello
2 ------ nec
1 ------ nba

I have using =LEFT(A1, 3) but it doesn't work

Thanks very much.

[zbor]

If they are unique you can try this:

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[JBeaucaire]

If that data is in column A, put this in B1 and copy down, then sort both columns by column B:

=LEFT(A1,FIND(" ",A1))+0