Share via

Excel sorting text differently between two identical columns?

Anonymous
2024-09-04T13:03:25+00:00

I have two columns with matching entries. For example,

C1 [blank] C2
a – 1 a
a a – 1
b b
b – 1 b – 1

When I try to sort, Excel thinks both are sorted appropriately. I would expect C1 to match C2. It's also odd to me that it sorts the first two rows differently than the last two in C1. Note I did convert the entries into text (rather than general).

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

1 answer

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Andreas Killer 144.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2024-09-04T13:52:42+00:00

    a) All the data is text, regardless how the cells are formatted (even before input).
    b) I can not reproduce the issue.

    c) Excel's sorting is subject to the system's regional settings. Reset the settings as described in this article:

    System settings - How to import a CSV file that does not match your - Microsoft Community

    d) If that doesn't help we need to see your file. It is possible that your file contains invisible characters that were not copied here when you transferred the data.

    Andreas.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments