Default sort orders

In an ascending sort, Microsoft Excel uses the following order. (In a descending sort, this sort order is reversed except for blank cells, which are always placed last.)

Numbers    Numbers are sorted from the smallest negative number to the largest positive number.

Alphanumeric sort    When you sort alphanumeric text, Excel sorts left to right, character by character. For example, if a cell contains the text "A100," Excel places the cell after a cell that contains the entry "A1" and before a cell that contains the entry "A11."

Text and text that includes numbers are sorted in the following order:

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 (space) ! " # $ % & ( ) * , . / : ; ? @ [ \ ] ^ _ ` { | } ~ + < = > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Apostrophes (') and hyphens (-) are ignored, with one exception: If two text strings are the same except for a hyphen, the text with the hyphen is sorted last.

Logical values    In logical values, FALSE is placed before TRUE.

Error values    All error values are equal.

Blanks    Blanks are always placed last.