Table sort

Question

After formatting a column as a table and then sorting from A to Z, does anyone know why "Haakon" appear below "Helen"? If I use a single A, then it sorts as expected. Is this some kind of Norwegian-specific setting that I'm missing? I suspect that excel interprets the "aa" as "å", but how do I turn that off?

Cells are formatted as General, changing it to Text format doesn't solve it.

Running on Microsoft 365, version 2208 build 16.0.15601.20148, 64-bit.

Windows 10 Home, version 21H2, "OS build" (If I'm translating it correctly) 19044.2006

Answer 1

Created a new user profile, changed Windows Display Language to English (USA), sort shows the expected results with "Haakon" above "Helen".

I don't think this is something to be "repaired", since "Å" is supposed to be the last letter in the Norwegian alphabet, and if Excel interprets "aa" as "å", then having "Haakon" below "Helen" is correct. I was wondering if there was a way to turn off this interpretation while still keeping Norwegian as the Windows Display Language.

The behavior is normal, in Germany we have a similar issue where "ß" is the same as "ss". e.g. this data:

Pass

Paß

Pass

Paß

Pass

Paß

is not sorted at all! (BTW, the filter did not work either.)

Close Excel

In your start menu execute intl.cpl to open the regional settings

Click the "Additional settings..." button (near the bottom), maybe you have a "Sort" tab in that window where you can change the sort method to be used.

E.g. for Germany:

Open Excel and test the behavior.

Andreas.

Answer 2

Created a new user profile, changed Windows Display Language to English (USA), sort shows the expected results with "Haakon" above "Helen".

I don't think this is something to be "repaired", since "Å" is supposed to be the last letter in the Norwegian alphabet, and if Excel interprets "aa" as "å", then having "Haakon" below "Helen" is correct. I was wondering if there was a way to turn off this interpretation while still keeping Norwegian as the Windows Display Language.

Answer 3

Dear CCBOM,

Thanks for your reply.

We test the filter with English system and Norwegian language settings. So we recommend you to create a new English user profile on your PC and test if the filter still shows the same result. This could help us narrow down if this behavior is related to your system environment or the Excel application issue. Also, you may try the online repair feature since this feature could reset all setting in your Excel: Repair an Office application (microsoft.com)

Thanks for your understanding and cooperation, have a great day.

Sincerely,

Sean Cai | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 4

Yes, it will sort like that on a new file. Just to expand on this, it also happens when I sort a selected area with the right click options, or if I sort it through the "Sort & Filter" options. Oh also, I have Excel in English on my computer (It was first installed with Norwegian though). Should have mentioned that before, sorry.

When I'm on the web version it sorts normally.

I'm wondering if it is related to the OS language being Norwegian?

Answer 5

Dear CCBOM,

Thanks for posting in Microsoft community.

As you can see in the following screenshot, we test the Norwegian on our side but we couldn't repro the same scenario.

May I confirm if you have the same behavior in a new Excel file? What about the Excel web version?

Thanks for your understanding and cooperation, have a great day.

Sincerely,

Sean Cai | Microsoft Community Moderator