Can’t sort a column in Excel!!!

[LawyerRon]

This is weird; I’ve got a column of numbers in excel that won’t sort property. There are “problem” groups of numbers that won’t fall into the proper order. The funny thing is, these “problem” groups won’t accept any formatting either. Example, if I select the entire column and try to change the formatting to say, accounting or currency, the “problem” group of numbers will not accept the formatting; they remain as simple numbers.

I’ve tried using the Edit>Clear>Format command on the entire column and even the entire spreadsheet but it still does not affect the problem group of numbers.

Also be aware that several people were working on this spreadsheet and were cutting and pasting from other spread sheets.

Any ideas?

[EzyStvy]

Can you give us an example of the “problem” groups?

Are the numbers simply 123456 etcc

[homer15]

if it's the whole column, insert a new column right next to it, copy the old column and do a "paste special" and insert only the values into the new column. if that doesn't solve the problem, then post back.

[LawyerRon]

Sorry I didn’t post back.. I solved it yesterday with a technique very similar to Homer15’s suggestion.

[David_Jones]

Possibly they weren't actually numbers, but labels of numeric characters.

That would stop the number formatting from working.

David.