Hi all,
I have inherited an excel spreadsheet containing a few thousand rows of manufacturing equipment information. One of the columns in the spreadsheet is used for the asset numbers. The column contains an very disorganized numbering system - some asset numbers have one or more leading zeros, some start with letters, some end in letters, and the rest are just plain old numbers.
There are times that I want to sort by asset numbers and due to the number system, it does not sort in a logical way (at least to me). For instance, in this particular group it sorts like this:
109
11
110
111
1117
1119
112
Any I want it to be:
11
109
110
111
112
1117
1119
I can get regular numbers to sort that particular way, but when I do, I lose all my leading zeros on other numbers that require those zeros in order to be unique.
Another sorting example with ones that begin with letters:
C10
C11
C4
C4204
C8
D1
And I want:
C4
C8
C10
C11
C4204
D1
I cannot simply assign new asset numbers because these numbers have been stamped on the machines and are also used in the accounting department for equipment inventories.
Any suggestions?
Thank you.