I have a long list of part numbers that contain mixed alpha-numeric
characters in no restricted fashion. i.e.
179802
A143B1
A1
CH03M
A15
R3
125B

etc.

The column never sorts correctly. "A3" follows "A15" because Excel
sorts everything like text.

I've looked at a number of examples of how others have addressed this
issue, but inconsistent format of my numbers prohibits using any
built-in Excel function that I know.

I'd just like to confirm that the only way to sort this list properly
is to parse all of the characters into alpha only, and numeric only,
groups. Put the groups into successive columns then have Excel sort
the data by the multiple columns.

Parsing would look like this:
179802 -- 179802
A143B1-- A 143 B 1
A1-- A 1
CH03M-- CH 03 M
A15 -- A 15
R3 -- R 3
125B -- 125 B

I would appreciate any comments.
THANKS!
David G.