numerical sort

**1956** · 08-06-2009, 08:00 PM

Hi Everyone,

This is my first time using excel, so I am a bran-newbie.
I put the following numbers in excel out of order and I would now like to put them numerically if possible. (see attachment)

16.99 - 16.05
49.99 - 47.24
24.99 - 23.61
14.99 - 14.16
12.99 - 12.27
5.99 - 5.66
8.99 - 8.49
54.99 - 51.96
etc.

there are quite a few prices, the lowest being 0.80 - 0.76, the highest being 439.99 - 415.77

What I would like to do is to list them starting with the lowest to the highest.

0.80 - 0.76
0.99 - 0.94
1.25 - 1.18
1.75 - 1.65
1.95 - 1.85
2.50 - 2.36
and so on through the list

The numbers on the left are the actual cost, the ones on the right are insert costs

The actual costs are the numbers I work with to get the insert costs I need, so the numbers have to stay together.

ie: If i'm looking for the price of 229.99, I can go right to it and get my insert price. In the order they are in now I have to scan all the numbers to find what i'm looking for.

I hope this is clear what I want to do.

If it can be done how do I do it?

If it cant please let me know and I will have to do it manually

About a month ago I took a 1 day excel workshop and the instructor couldn't help me

Thanks for you help

Peter

**martindwilson** · 08-06-2009, 08:12 PM

put them all in one column say A
then in b1
put
=--LEFT(A1,FIND("-",A1)-1)
and drag down
then select cols a and b
and sort by col b
then delete formulas in col b
OR if you want them in 3 columns as you already have
do the above for column A then repeat for cols c/d and e/f but change the formula in d1 to
=--LEFT(c1,FIND("-",c1)-1) and in f1 to =--LEFT(e1,FIND("-",e1)-1

**1956** · 08-06-2009, 10:22 PM

Thanks for the quick reply

I don't know how to do all that, I tried but got nowhere.

I am really new to this, like only ever use it a month ago for the first time.

Is there an easier way so I can understand it.

I probably need walking through it.

Thanks anyways

Peter

**martindwilson** · 08-07-2009, 04:04 AM

see attached
there are other methods, it would always be easier to have 0.80 - 0.76 in seperate cells then you wouldnt have this problem. it is easy to split these using text to columns. if you want that just ask .

**1956** · 08-07-2009, 10:02 PM

WOOHOO, GOT IT!

Thanks so much,you don't know how many times I tried to get it to work, it was driving me nuts, then I figured it out after drinking beers all afternoon, go figure.

I put an attachment to show what I was looking for

The instructions were great!

Thanks so much for your help

Peter