You need to make them text. If your #s are in A1:A100, enter this in B1:
=A1&"" and fill down, then sort on column B.
HTH

"Darren" wrote:

I have a list of part numbers in a column which I need to sort

When I use the sort function in excel, it will sort them according to their
number size, ie.

31, 41, 311, 411

I need them to read as

31, 311, 41, 411

How on earth do I do this?