Alphanumeric sorting

[Tpaairman]

As a hobby I work on antique radios, and I have a FMP file for the shop that includes all of the tube tester data. 2,900+ tubes. Anyway I've come across an interesting issue. The tube numbers are almost always combinations of numbers and letters with the numbers first - ex 12SK7. The problem is the normal way the computer sorts alphanumeric combos with i.e 1,11,12,13 etc then 2, 20, 21, etc.

Is there any way to make it sort 1,2,3,4....9,10,11,12 etc? Leading zeros are not an option.

If I can't find an easy solution then not a huge deal as once this is all done I am going to just search for the tube number, but the problem is that I had to manually enter all 2,900+ entries, and now I am going back and verifying all of them. I set up a script to basically start where I left off, and after I review the entry, it goes to the next one. But because it sorts this way, I'm kind of skipping around the book since it's not following the same order.

[Fitch]

You don't have to add leading zeros to the field, but what you could do is make a separate calculated field that does have leading zeros and sort on that. E.g.

Right( "0000" & tube number ; 8 )

[Tpaairman]

That still really wouldn't help.

Here's the problem - I might have one tube numbered 12SK7 and another numbered 6AF7. How would I make it add a leading zero in that calculaition to the 6# tube, but not the 12?

[Lee Smith]

Might be helpful to see more of the different numbers, but try the filter function with what was suggested.

Filter( Right( "0000" & tube numbers ; 8 ) ; "0123456789" )

Lee

[comment]

Is the structure always 1 or 2 digits, 2 letters and 1 digit?

[Fitch]

How would I make it add a leading zero in that calculaition to the 6# tube, but not the 12?

In my example calc, just change the 8 to a 5.

You didn't specify the max number of characters so I had to guess.