[mso] Re: excel sort problem
- From: Jim <n1jmm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2003 05:07:58 -0500
I tried to do as you suggested but I'm not so sure what I did was what
you meant..... I put a 1 in a new column, copied and pasted it down
20plus cells. Then I selected all those cells and did the paste special
multiply and I saw a Sum=28 in the bar at the bottom of the excel
window, other than that I saw no change..
Anyhow, I think I figured out what was happening this afternoon...
I had started this spreadsheet like many others in the past, I'd get
statrted, save the file, close the program, come back to it later, open
spreadsheet by double clicking the file name in windows explorer.
The sheet opens and I start adding more entries to it (in this case it
is for inventory, physically adding entries for each item I find in the
crib).
When I started the sheet I set certain fields to be TEXT by selecting
the column, say column B, right click-properties, select text. Before I
close the spreadsheet I usually update the page setup so it includes the
new rows/columns as usually it doesnt update automatically, then I save
the sheet and close the program...
when I open it again later to continue adding items I use basically the
same process.
Periodically I sort on a column and manually scan for dupes, this is
when it gets very frustrating to get part way down the list and find out
it wasn't fully sorted the way I expected...
At that point I tried checking theproperties of the column again, sure
enough it reports TEXT...
Today, I did some more investigation and I've come to the following
conclusion, even thou I had set the column to TEXT, when the file is
saved, apparently only the cells that contain a value seem to retain the
TEXT setting when the file is opened again, so when I start adding more
rows, they seem to default back to GENERAL...... this is a major pain in
the butt... is there any easy way to define (a) column(s) to be TEXT and
stay that way until I decide otherwise? I don't want to have to set the
column types everytime I open the spreadsheets...
Is there also an easy way to wholesale CHANGE a column type after data
has been imported or cut and pasted or say a .csv file opened? Excel
seems to interpret any value that contains 2 seperate dashes in it to be
a DATE which totally changes things and of course if I change that cell
back to TEXT the value I get then is nothing like what it should be....
Is there a way to PREVENT excel from guessing what the data type is in
each cell? At this point I would prefer to just set the whole file to TEXT.
I know, I should be using a database, but, this is what I have to work
with and this is what other people want for a file type so this is what
I'm stuck using for now...
-Jim-
Linda F. Johnson wrote:
>Wow Jim...I have never seen Excel sort that way, not since I started using
>it with version 5. I don't even see any rhyme or reason to the sort you
>show below. Why would 21 and 35 follow 14, but then 20 and 30 follow 9? I
>have NEVER seen anything like that.
>
>In my experience, as long as I make sure the formatting on my numbers is
>correct and I don't have any weird spaces in there, the sorting is always
>correct.
>
>Try this. Go to one of those spreadsheets where the numbers aren't sorting
>correctly and do this.
>
>Put a 1 in any blank cell and copy it, then highlight the whole list of
>numbers and choose Paste Special from the Edit menu.....put a tick beside
>Multiply in the Paste Special box and click OK....now sort those numbers
>again and tell me if they sort correctly.
>
>Linda
>Publisher ~ ABC ~ All 'Bout Computers
>Owner ~ Linda's Computer Stop
>http://personal-computer-tutor.com
>FREE MS Office eBook Tutorial
>http://personal-computer-tutor.com/library.htm
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
>Of Jim
>Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 9:34 PM
>To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [mso] excel sort problem
>
>
>
>this question may not be new, but, I need to know how to MAKE excel sort
>CORRECTLY.
>
>ever since 97 (possibly before that) I've had problems with excel not
>doing sorts correctly.
>
>If I sort a spreadsheet (100+ rows, not sure at what point it becomes a
>problem), I almost always get a partially correct sort.
>
>If I ask it to sort based on a number or text field the result is always
>that the sheet is in order, but in at least 2 groups, such as:
>
>1
>2
>3
>10
>14
>21
>35
>4
>6
>9
>20
>30
>
>This happens weather I sort based on numbers, letters or alpha-numeric
>fields.
>
>I've tried doing it in 2k several times with similar results. The only
>common thing is that the worksheets were always created in 97. This
>happens on multiple machines running 98, 98se, nt4.0, 2000, and XPpro,
>with excel 97 and 2000.....
>
>I'm hopeing that since it's been a few years that there is an answer /
>fix for this problem...
>
>I've also tried inserting a new column, setting the propertiy to TEXT
>only and even typing the data into the new column again, and also tried
>doing a paste special data only, I still get bad sorts...
>
>Does anybody have a fix for this?
>
>I don't have a choice of what program to use, 97 and 2k versions are
>what's on the machines in the office...
>
>Thanks
>-Jim-
>
>
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