Leading spaces causing sort problem

[Delta223]

Hi,

I am trying to sort a database with about 500,000 names. For some reason, about half my data has leading spaces and half do not. I have taken a screenshot at the divide so you can see what I mean.

The sort in the picture is in this order:

Column D
Column C
Column A

Is there any way to mass purge these leading spaces in Column D (column b also has the issue but the fix is not nearly as important as for column D)?

[teylyn]

Hi Delta,

use one of the columns to the right and put in this formula in row 1

=trim(D1)

copy down to the end of your data, then copy that column and use Edit - Paste Special - Values to paste it over the data in column D. You can then delete the formula column and re-sort.

Repeat the process for the other column with leading spaces.

hth

[contaminated]

Maybe this thread can some how help you

See Post # 2
Find and replace blank characters

HTH