Searching and Sorting a list of data (numbers and letters) in excel

hi all.
your help is required please!
i am trying to find a short cut round doing something. basically i get lists of information (mainly different numbers) and need to sort them out as there can be 7 different sorts of numbers contained in my origional list.
ideally what i would like to happen is to have excel go through these numbers one by one, and allocate them into a new column depending on what criteria the number hits.
i do hope someone understands this - but i would be more than happy to explain something further. I do have all the different ranges of informaiton should you need to see it?
i appreciate your time.
Thanks

I think it needs a lot more explaining ...

ah, i suspected as much.
basically i get sent spresdsheets with policy numbers on, and there are 7 different policy types. instead of me manually allocating each cell to a specific column, i would like this to be done automatically.
to complicate matters the policy numbers usually have letters either in the begining or the end of the number. but the 7 different policy types are very different in their length and construction.
would it be possible to use macros instead of some over elaborate and complex list of IF functions?

Not making much progress here ...

Can you characterize and provide examples of each type of number, and then explain precisely what it is you want to do?

ok......
i have 7 different types of policy:
policy type 1, 2,3 4 etc
for each policy type, it has a different range of numbers that characterise the policy type,

eg, policy type 1 is characterised by a polivy number like 12345678ab and policy type 2 is characterised by policy number r1234567 and so on etc.
the 7 different policy types have very specific lengths and structure

is this possible to have it done automatically or am i heading down a dead end?

thanks

Yes, it's possible.

excellent news.
apologies if i have been a little unclear thus far - i am unsure myself as to how to explain it, so to you it must sound very confusing.
to your knowledge has there been a similar enquiry to this recently - ie one where i could 'steal' the code from and change it slightly to meet my requirements?

Bramble, I don't know what your requirement is.

I know that Excel can analyze, manipulate, and sort strings.