It's happening because you are asking if a cell begins with (or contains) 123
as text which the number 123 doesn't so it is filtered out.

To get around the problem format all the cells as text.

Mike

"gb_S49" wrote:

I have a list of products. some numerical and some with a 'suffix' at the
end eg
123
123a
123ab
124
124a
When I use auto filter (begins with or contains) the plain number is always
ommitted. Any ideas why?