But formatting the cells as text isn't enough to change the values in the cells.

(And I actually used &"" (no space character) to convert the non-text to text.
A very minor point that wouldn't change the results in this example.)

Bernard Liengme wrote:

Interesting: Using your &" " method I get the same as you have below. There
was a dialog box asking how entries that seem to be numbers should be
treated and I specified "as text"

If you just format the range as text, you do not get the required sort -
numbers are separated from alpha entries.

best wishes
--
Bernard V Liengme
Microsoft Excel MVP
www.stfx.ca/people/bliengme
remove caps from email

"Dave Peterson" wrote in message
...
I don't understand. I got this order when I sorted:

853TT00123
8540000587
90000HH223
9150000001
915000000X

What did you get?

Toppers wrote:

Dave,
Even when text, they didn't sort as OP requested

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

Always 10 characters?

Maybe you could use a helper column with formulas like:

=a2&""
(headers in row 1, then copy down the range as far as required)

To force the entries to be text.


plumstone wrote:

I have some part numbers. They are all 10 digits. But it could be a
pure 10
digit number like "9150000001", but also could be any kind of mix up
of apha
and numeric like "853TT00123", or "A00008299X". I want them to be
sorted like
this way:

853TT00123
8540000587
90000HH223
9150000001
915000000X

What I meant is that it sort digit by digit - It sort by the first
digit,
then the 2nd digit, then the 3rd... then the 10th.

Thanks in advance.

--

Dave Peterson


--

Dave Peterson

--

Dave Peterson