Trouble with Excel sort functions after trying many different things

Hey everybody, first post here. I've looked at many different forums for a fix to my problems and I've tried a few different formulas and codes but can't seem to get Excel to sort the way I need to. I have a large list (1,013 rows) of steel shapes for construction purposes that, for example, look like this:

C3X6
C6X105
C7X1225
C7X98
W14X30
W14X311
W14X34

Ideally, Excel sorts these to look like:

C3X6
C6X105
C7X98
C7X105
C7X1225
W14X30
W14X34
W14X311

Where the shapes are sorted first by letter, then by the first number, then by the number after the X.

It's almost as if Excel thinks there's a decimal point in a strange spot and decides that "311" is between "30" and "34". Does anybody know how to work with this and sort to the order that I've specified? Help would be appreciated, thanks everybody!

Originally Posted by Special-K

It's sorting alphabetically from left to right, standard thing on computers.
So

1
3
24

when sorted will be produce

1
24
3

I can't see you've specified a sort order.
You've stated a list and what it looks like and how Excel sorts that list but you havent stated how you want the list sorted.
Please explain further.

Sorry, I should've been more clear. The first list in my original post is what I get when I use the "Sort" function. When I said "ideally excel sorts like this" for the second list, that is what I want to achieve.

I believe that the COUNTIF() function will work also.

In cell B1 enter the formula: =COUNTIF($A$1:$A$8,"<="&A1)
then drag down.

Sort on column B

Pretty sure that will get you what your looking for.