Sorting - cells containing numbers, numbers and letters

This should be simple to do ...but I'm stumped. I have a spreadsheet with
legislative district numbers that contain numbers while others contain
numbers and letters:

1
2
2a
2b
3
4
4a
4b
4c
5
etc.

I have tried converting the cell format to text and that does not work.
Please understand that I am not Excel literate and any answer must be in
simple but detailed terms that someone who could break a crowbar in a sandbox
can understand.

this may not be practical, but if you put a single apostraphe ' before any number, this will solve your problem.

Matt

What are you trying to do with this data? Sort it??

"Gunny" wrote:

> This should be simple to do ...but I'm stumped. I have a spreadsheet with
> legislative district numbers that contain numbers while others contain
> numbers and letters:
>
> 1
> 2
> 2a
> 2b
> 3
> 4
> 4a
> 4b
> 4c
> 5
> etc.
>
> I have tried converting the cell format to text and that does not work.
> Please understand that I am not Excel literate and any answer must be in
> simple but detailed terms that someone who could break a crowbar in a sandbox
> can understand.

well if i were pedantic i would ask you what the problem is seeing the sample
you have shown us is sorted perfectly.You want to know how to sort a jumbled
column to a column like you have shown?
--
paul
[email protected]
remove nospam for email addy!



"Gunny" wrote:

> This should be simple to do ...but I'm stumped. I have a spreadsheet with
> legislative district numbers that contain numbers while others contain
> numbers and letters:
>
> 1
> 2
> 2a
> 2b
> 3
> 4
> 4a
> 4b
> 4c
> 5
> etc.
>
> I have tried converting the cell format to text and that does not work.
> Please understand that I am not Excel literate and any answer must be in
> simple but detailed terms that someone who could break a crowbar in a sandbox
> can understand.

try this for starters
in a column next to your actual column or somewhere next to the data you are
sorting,have a column that shows ONLY the numbers.Then sort all your data by
that column,you may get a dialog box asking if you want to sort the numbers
as numbers,but click the text option(seeing you have text)
--
paul
[email protected]
remove nospam for email addy!



"paul" wrote:

> well if i were pedantic i would ask you what the problem is seeing the sample
> you have shown us is sorted perfectly.You want to know how to sort a jumbled
> column to a column like you have shown?
> --
> paul
> [email protected]
> remove nospam for email addy!
>
>
>
> "Gunny" wrote:
>
> > This should be simple to do ...but I'm stumped. I have a spreadsheet with
> > legislative district numbers that contain numbers while others contain
> > numbers and letters:
> >
> > 1
> > 2
> > 2a
> > 2b
> > 3
> > 4
> > 4a
> > 4b
> > 4c
> > 5
> > etc.
> >
> > I have tried converting the cell format to text and that does not work.
> > Please understand that I am not Excel literate and any answer must be in
> > simple but detailed terms that someone who could break a crowbar in a sandbox
> > can understand.

Hi Gunny,
see
Sorting, Some notes on sorting in Excel
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/sorting.htm
---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"Gunny" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> This should be simple to do ...but I'm stumped. I have a spreadsheet with
> legislative district numbers that contain numbers while others contain
> numbers and letters:
>
> 1
> 2
> 2a
> 2b
> 3
> 4
> 4a
> 4b
> 4c
> 5
> etc.
>
> I have tried converting the cell format to text and that does not work.
> Please understand that I am not Excel literate and any answer must be in
> simple but detailed terms that someone who could break a crowbar in a sandbox
> can understand.