Date sorting not working?

[sarjak]

Hello all,

I am working with a 5 column/35 line spreadsheet and need to sort the contents by date (column E). I have made sure that the column is formatted for date (ex format>cells>DATE>03/01/05). When I select the columns go to DATA > SORT > Column e ascending it sorts up until line 30 or so then it just does the willy nilly thing. I cannot figure out why this simple function is giving me more greys. Any ideas?

Thanks
Tracy

[Duke Carey]

I'd be suspicious that some of your 'dates' are acutally text values
masquerading as dates.

Check the ones that don't sort correctly, maybe even re-entering them. Then
try sorting them again

"sarjak" wrote:

>
> Hello all,
>
> I am working with a 5 column/35 line spreadsheet and need to sort the
> contents by date (column E). I have made sure that the column is
> formatted for date (ex format>cells>DATE>03/01/05). When I select the
> columns go to DATA > SORT > Column e ascending it sorts up until line
> 30 or so then it just does the willy nilly thing. I cannot figure out
> why this simple function is giving me more greys. Any ideas?
>
> Thanks
> Tracy
>
>
>
> --
> sarjak
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> sarjak's Profile: http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=29402
> View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=496477
>
>

[Jacob_F_Roecker]

Dear Sarjak

I'd recommend using a different feature.

Try auto filtering on your header row

Data --> Filter --> Autofilter

This will give you a little more control over sorting your columns. It's an
easy and quick feature.

Let me know if you still have the same problem sorting it this way.

[email protected]

"sarjak" wrote:

>
> Hello all,
>
> I am working with a 5 column/35 line spreadsheet and need to sort the
> contents by date (column E). I have made sure that the column is
> formatted for date (ex format>cells>DATE>03/01/05). When I select the
> columns go to DATA > SORT > Column e ascending it sorts up until line
> 30 or so then it just does the willy nilly thing. I cannot figure out
> why this simple function is giving me more greys. Any ideas?
>
> Thanks
> Tracy
>
>
>
> --
> sarjak
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> sarjak's Profile: http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=29402
> View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=496477
>
>

[Niek Otten]

Hi Sarjak,

Probably the >30 cells are text, not dates/numbers although they may look
like dates and are formatted as such.
You can easily check with the ISNUMBER() function. If so, do the following:
Format an empty cell as number. Copy. Select your "Dates". Paste special,
check Add. Re-format as date.

BTW, 03/01/95; is that January or March?
You don't happen to expect the column to sort just on day, do you?

--
Kind regards,

Niek Otten

"sarjak" <[email protected]> wrote in
message news:[email protected]...
>
> Hello all,
>
> I am working with a 5 column/35 line spreadsheet and need to sort the
> contents by date (column E). I have made sure that the column is
> formatted for date (ex format>cells>DATE>03/01/05). When I select the
> columns go to DATA > SORT > Column e ascending it sorts up until line
> 30 or so then it just does the willy nilly thing. I cannot figure out
> why this simple function is giving me more greys. Any ideas?
>
> Thanks
> Tracy
>
>
>
> --
> sarjak
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> sarjak's Profile:
> http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=29402
> View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=496477
>

[sarjak]

Thank you all for your responses.
The Autofilter didn't work.
And the field "seemed" to be formatted as a date/number.
I re-entered it and tried AGAIN and low and behold it worked.

Thanks again for all the input!

Tracy


BTW: 03/01/05 is March 1

[Peo Sjoblom]

Or format empty cell as date before copying and do it in one fell swoop! <g>

--

Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

"Niek Otten" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:%232AL5n%[email protected]...
> Hi Sarjak,
>
> Probably the >30 cells are text, not dates/numbers although they may look
> like dates and are formatted as such.
> You can easily check with the ISNUMBER() function. If so, do the
following:
> Format an empty cell as number. Copy. Select your "Dates". Paste special,
> check Add. Re-format as date.
>
> BTW, 03/01/95; is that January or March?
> You don't happen to expect the column to sort just on day, do you?
>
> --
> Kind regards,
>
> Niek Otten
>
> "sarjak" <[email protected]> wrote in
> message news:[email protected]...
> >
> > Hello all,
> >
> > I am working with a 5 column/35 line spreadsheet and need to sort the
> > contents by date (column E). I have made sure that the column is
> > formatted for date (ex format>cells>DATE>03/01/05). When I select the
> > columns go to DATA > SORT > Column e ascending it sorts up until line
> > 30 or so then it just does the willy nilly thing. I cannot figure out
> > why this simple function is giving me more greys. Any ideas?
> >
> > Thanks
> > Tracy
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > sarjak
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > sarjak's Profile:
> > http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=29402
> > View this thread:
http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=496477
> >
>
>

[KevinF2]

The only way I could get auto sort in date to work properly was by formatting the cells as a text field and entering the numeric equivalent of a date, then reverting the format to dat..

eg
28/02/2014 = 41698