Sort function

[ColinL965]

Trying to figure out a sort on a table.

my problem is as follows.

a column contains serial no's . There are wrongly entered serial no's  ( without  a prefix )

eg. SN12345 = Correct, 12345 = Incorrect

I would like to group the correct  and incorrect no's together in some sort of sort. Is this possible using just the data in the column?

Sorry if i'm not making this clear.

Hope someone can help?

[#2]

@ColinL965 Would it work if you created a new column that fixes the issue of the incorrect serial numbers. Something like this:

[#3]

Did you try SORT method from DATA tab?

[#4]

@ColinL965 

A quick solution would be to add an additional column with the formula...see attached file.

to find Text

=LEFT(A3,MIN(FIND({0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9},A3&"0123456789"))-1)

to show result

=IF(B1=""; "Incorrect";"Correct")

Hope I could help you with these information.

NikolinoDE

I know I don't know anything (Socrates)

[#5]

Each entry in the table is unique. At this stage i dont want to alter any of the data, just bring entries together for later deletion from a main database. For further information this table has been exported from a much larger database, which i cannot modify directly or import back to.

[#6]

@NikolinoDE 

This has possibilities, however it is complicated by the fact that some of the serial numbers without SN prefix are actually genuine serial No's for other non-related units ( i would need to look at the complete dataset to determine this however ) I think it would be too complicated to work out criteria to distinguish between them, but i think this could be a good starting point.

[#7]

I'll have a look at this.

[#8]

I am helped by the fact that the near duplicates are few, however the data table itself is massive.

[#9]

@ColinL965 

It is not dependent on the letters...if letters then correct, if not then incorrect...any text.

Attached is the example in the file expanded with other letters...otherwise VBA would be an additional option.