I am making an expenses spreadsheet in Google Docs and I need to list the numbers of the attachments for each entry. Sometimes this is just one number, sometimes it is several. I can make this column be formatted as text, but I want to make the spreadsheet sortable by the first attachment number listed. When the cell contents are 1, 2&3, 4-7 etc. 11 is sorted before 2, which is a problem.The one solution I see is writing the numbers instead as 001, 002&003, 004-007 etc. and still formatting as text, but this strikes me as unnecessarily cumbersome. Is there a better way?
In Google Docs, how to make a column with several numbers in each cell sortable?
google spreadsheets;sorting
UPDATEChanged the formula to accept the ampersand as wellThe following formula will create a sorted column:=SORT(ARRAYFORMULA(VALUE(INDEX(SPLIT(A:A;-&),0,0))))See example file I've created: Sort-able text column