Sorting numbers as Text

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
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Guest

I frequently work with a lists of text data, some of which consists of digits
or digits + alpha characters. These are always formatted as tect fields.
When I sort them i get a dialog box asking if I would rather sort digits as
numbers or as text. Sorting as text provides the result I need, so I always
select that and it works fine
My question is, how can I skip having to answer this question over and over
and over? Is there a configuration option thats says 'leave me alone - I know
what I am doing' ?

Thanks for any help.
 
Sheila said:
I've never seen the message you refer to - what version of Excel is this?
Sheila
Click to expand...

Excel 2003 does this. I run into this when I have product numbers that have
a leading zero. To keep the leading zero the cells must be formatted as
text and the prompt comes up whenever you try to sort the column.

gls858
 
I'm using 2003 and I can't get this message even with leading 0's as you
describe - not aware of any options I've changed either.............
 
Not via the user interface.

But you could record a macro that sorts the data the way you want. And never be
bother again....
 
Sheila said:
I'm using 2003 and I can't get this message even with leading 0's as you
describe - not aware of any options I've changed either.............
Click to expand...
Here's what I did. I formated cells in the column as text. Entered several
numbers then selected the column went to Data > Sort and a window pops up
that says:
The following sort key may not sort as expected because it contains some
numbers formatted as text. What would you like to do?

Sort anything that looks like number as a number
Sort number and numbers stored as text separately

Happens every time for me.

gls858
 
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