Hi Peter,
You would have to make sure that Excel knows that each
cell is text. Excel sorts numeric cells before text cells.
Format the column as text, and then reenter each cell
with F2 then Enter; or use a macro to effect the reentry.
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/join.htm#reenter
one of the macros there should help, probably the first one
under that topic.
---
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

"peter" wrote in message oups.com...
Bear in mind, I am new to excel. Say I have a column with the
following entries:

2
1
2-a
3

When I use the "sort ascending" button on this column it comes up:

1
2
3
2-a

What I would like is the following:
1
2
2-a
3

Can anyone help?

Thanks,
Peter