How do you sort 9 digit zip codes in Excel?

Nine digit zip codes do not sort properly in Excel even when the cell is
formatted as "Special". I use Excel to sort for mailing labels and cannot
use 9 digit zipcodes because of the error. Help!

Make sure the cells containing the zip codes are formatted as text.

--

Vasant

"Martha Parsons" <Martha [email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Nine digit zip codes do not sort properly in Excel even when the cell is
> formatted as "Special". I use Excel to sort for mailing labels and cannot
> use 9 digit zipcodes because of the error. Help!

in an adjacent column put in a formula like (assume the zip is in C1)

=if(len(C1) = 5,text(C1,"00000")& "-0000",Text(C1,"00000-0000"))

Drag fill down the column, then sort on that column.

--
Regards,
Tom Ogilvy


"Martha Parsons" <Martha [email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Nine digit zip codes do not sort properly in Excel even when the cell is
> formatted as "Special". I use Excel to sort for mailing labels and cannot
> use 9 digit zipcodes because of the error. Help!

Thank You!!!!!!!! This worked beautifully!

Martha

"Vasant Nanavati" wrote:

> Make sure the cells containing the zip codes are formatted as text.
>
> --
>
> Vasant
>
> "Martha Parsons" <Martha [email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Nine digit zip codes do not sort properly in Excel even when the cell is
> > formatted as "Special". I use Excel to sort for mailing labels and cannot
> > use 9 digit zipcodes because of the error. Help!
>
>
>

On Sat, 21 May 2005 08:57:11 -0700, "Martha Parsons" <Martha
[email protected]> wrote:

>Nine digit zip codes do not sort properly in Excel even when the cell is
>formatted as "Special". I use Excel to sort for mailing labels and cannot
>use 9 digit zipcodes because of the error. Help!

Can you give an example of improperly sorted 9 digit zip codes? Although I
think I know what you mean, I was not able to replicate a sorting error.


--ron

Martha (the OP), indicated she had the answer at the same time
you replied, evidently just new entries are the problem.

If there were a number of old entries you would want to convert
them to text, and I have a macro for that.
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/join.htm#fixUSzip5

Tom, a zip code of 7234 formatted as 00000 to show 07234
would test as a length of 4 =LEN(A1)

---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"Ron Rosenfeld" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> On Sat, 21 May 2005 08:57:11 -0700, "Martha Parsons" <Martha
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
> >Nine digit zip codes do not sort properly in Excel even when the cell is
> >formatted as "Special". I use Excel to sort for mailing labels and cannot
> >use 9 digit zipcodes because of the error. Help!
>
> Can you give an example of improperly sorted 9 digit zip codes? Although I
> think I know what you mean, I was not able to replicate a sorting error.
>
>
> --ron