Sorting by the first number?

[Scott]

I work for a Hardware store and we are wanting to set up a
spreadsheet that would sort stock numbers. The problem
is we want it to sort by deepartment. This is a problem
because each department starts with its department number
but there are some items that may have 5 numbers for its
product number and there are some itmes that may have 7
numbers for its product number. For example a screwdriver
may have a product number of 14579 while a hammer may have
a product number of 1578943 and a faucet has a number of
47654. When excel sorts this it is going to put the
screwdriver first the faucet second and the hammer third
but the hammer and screwdriver are in the tool department
and the faucet is in plumbing department. Is there a way
to sort by just the first number?

Thanks
Scott