Excel does not recognize data as numbers when trying to sort

Question

Hello Excel gurus... 

I have a question for Excel 2013.  I created a spreadsheet for organizing data from competitive events (i.e. to save times).  At the end, a handicap must be calculated based on the teams... this is done via a VLOOKUP.  It is also formatted to output a blank if the preceeding cells are blank.  Here's the equation for F3: =IF(D3="","",IF(E3="","",IF(D3="NT","",IF(E3="NT","",D3+E3+VLOOKUP(C3,Handicaps,2,FALSE)))))

The VLOOKUP table just adds seconds based on the handicap; the NT denotation (of the previous cells) indicates a no time - or a team that was disqualified thus does not need a final time calculated.

Excel is recognizing cells with this formula as letters when I try to sort; it asks if I want to sort A-Z.  I didn't think it would be a problem but it is... last time I tried to sort it skipped a few of the teams.

I'm not sure why the data is not recognized as numbers - any thoughts?

Thanks,

-Alex

Answer 1

When I login to windows with new user profile the problem was resolved and everything working fine.

So, if your PC connected to domain try to move your data and remove you profile and login again with new profile.

If your PC in workgroup create new profile than login with it and move your data from the old profile.

You need administrator privilege to do this.

Answer 2

Yes, It should give correct result once you have numbers in it.

You are right, that excel default assume that data is not numeric unless numeric data exists.

Try with some dummy data, and it should work,

Answer 3

V_Agarwal thanks so much!

That seemed to work when I tried it on an old spreadsheet (with data and numbers already in) but when I tried it on a blank sheet (for a new event) it went back to an A-Z sort.  Will this change once I have numbers in?  Does Excel default assume that data is not numeric unless numeric data exists?

Thanks again,

-Alex

Answer 4

Try to change your formula to

=IF(AND(ISNUMBER(D3),ISNUMBER(E3)),D3+E3+VALUE(VLOOKUP(C3,Handicaps,2,FALSE)),"")