Issues with 3-Column Sort

[jimwinchell]

I have a user that is having a problem with a spreadsheet when doing a
3 column sort. We are using Excel 2003. Below is a description of
the problem and what we have tried so far. If anyone has any ideas, I
would great appreciate them.

Thank you,
JW

Problem: Can not do one particular 3-column sort. Selecting to sort
by column A, then by B, then by C does not work. Sorting by A itself
works. Sorting by B, then by C does. I have it narrowed down to if
we include column A in a multiple column sort, it fails.

What we have tried:

1) Copied the cells from one sheet to another. The problem follows
to the new sheet.

2) Manually keyed the data into a new sheet. The multiple column
sort works.

At this point, we felt that there must be a control character hidden
in Column A somewhere?

3) Copied the 3 columns from Excel and pasted into Notepad to remove
the formatting. Imported the text file into a new sheet. The multi-
column sort failed.

Has anybody seen this type of problem before? Very strange. Let me
know if more information is needed or if anyone has any ideas. Thanks!

 

[Tyla]

What do you mean by "fails"? Is there an explicit error message, or
does Excel crash, or is it simply that the resulting order of rows is
not what you expected? Also, what kind of data do you have in Column
A (numeric, text, date, ...) ?

/ Tyla /