Sorting disregards dash

This is the result of a sorting that I do - the range is formatted as text:

756/1-015
756/1-019
756/1-020
756/102-017
756/102-020
756/1-031
756/105-004
756/105-006
756/106-002

I do not want the value 756/1-031 to end in that position as it belongs after 756/1-20, but apparently the sorting procedure disregards the dash.
Replacing the dash with an underscore can solve the problem, but I would very much like to avoid that solution.
Is it possible to make Excel respect the dash as a significant element in the string?

NSV

You can get that to happen if you change 756/1- to 756/100- for consistency. You can use Find & Replace (CTRL-H) to make those changes.

If this messes up your established coding system, then copy those codes into another (helper) column, make the changes to the helper, and use the helper within the sort range and as the sort key.

Hope this helps.

Pete

Thanks Pete, I already tried the 756/100 solution, but it fouled up some other things, so I had to drop it.
Currently I use a 2-helper-columns solution where I divide the values at the dash, but I was hoping to get rid of that.

Does all this mean that the dash does not have a position in the sorting hieararchy?

It does, but it depends how you have sorted them. If you treat them as text values then it is the ASCII code values of each character that is taken account of, but if you sort them as it they are numbers (which they are NOT), then Excel tries to treat all the characters as digits and does its best to make sense of it.

At least my second suggestion would mean one less helper column for you.

Hope this helps.

If that takes care of your original question, please select Thread Tools from the menu above your first post and mark this thread as SOLVED.

Pete

"If I treat them as ASCII", but how can I do that?

Anyway, thanks for your input, it did not solve my original question, but at least I know how things are.

NSV