Number sort not right

[Sparky]

I have what I believe is a simple problem, but it's got me stymied.

I have a spreadsheet of all of the businesses in my city. There are multiple
columns, eg.

Company Street Number Street Name Unit #

I want to send mailings to selected companies in the downtown core. For
instance, all of the companies on Main Street from 500 Main Street West to
500 Main Street East. I sort on Street Name and Street Number but Street
Number seems to sort from the left.

198 Main Street
199 Maiin Street
2 Main Street
20 Main Street
etc.

I have made sure that the Street Number is in number format, there are no
extranneous characters in the table and I have run out of ideas. One
interesting thing... if I double click a cell or press F2, the number moves
from left to right alignment - I figure this must be a clue, but it's beyond
me. There are a few entries in the column that have alpha characters (eg.
1-B) - is this what's causing me problems?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[Gord Dibben]

Sparky

Your numbers are Text. Re-formatting to Number or General does nothing to
change that.

Make sure they are formatted as General then....

Copy an empty cell then select your range of numbers. Paste
Special>Add>OK>Esc.

This is the same as hitting F2 or double-clicking each cell.

Gord Dibben Excel MVP

 

[cityboy]

Thanks - that worked. Any idea how I can sort the ones that have alpha
characters? There are quite a few that are listed as 1D or 225A.