I have a spreadsheet with data imported from a database program. One of the
columns is the zip code. Some of the zip codes have zip-plus-4 and others
just have the old 5-digit zip code. I want to be able to sort by the zip
code, meaning I'd end up with 5-digit zip codes interspersed amoung the zip +
4 codes.

If I format the cells in the column as "special" zip + 4 formatting, it adds
a five-digit field before those that don't already have the "plus 4" part.
So what was 01080 becomes 00000-1080. Not acceptable.

If I format the cells as text I loose the leading zeros. 01080 above
becomes just 1080. Still not acceptable.

Any ideas? Am I missing something?

Jerry