How to Sort Numbers Dashes in Excel

1. Launch Microsoft Excel 2010.
2. Right-click on the letter 'A' above the first column and click 'Format Cells' from the context menu. Click the 'Number' tab and click 'Text' in the 'Category' box. Click 'OK' to save the setting and change the way Excel treats column 'A' to text. This allows you to enter and sort numbers that contain dashes.
3. Click the first cell in the first column, or Cell 'A1.' Type '100' and press 'Enter' to save the contents of the cell and move to the next cell down.
4. Type '1200' in the second cell and press 'Enter.' Continue to enter the following series in the next nine cells: '1300,' '1200-12505,' '1200-311,' 1200-312,' '1200-312506,' '1199-5,' '1201-5,' '3-565' and '1200-5.' At this point, the first 11 cells in column 'A' should have unique entries.
5. Click on the letter 'A' above the first column to select the entire column.
6. Click the 'Sort A to Z' button in the 'Sort Filter' group on the 'Data' tab of the toolbar. The whole numbers without dashes are sorted in numerical order at the top of the list, and all of the numbers with dashes are sorted below the whole numbers. The numbers which include dashes are sorted by the first digit, the ones that match in the first digit are sorted by the second digit and so on.