I'm sorry if this has been asked and answered before, but I'm not sure I'm even using the correct term when searching for an answer.

How do I get Excel 2013 to understand numbering similar to how software versions are numbered or how IP addresses are numbered; using a period to separate positive integers?



For example, I have several rows of data. In the first row, I want 1.1, second row should be 1.2 etc where the tenth row is 1.10...as in "one dot ten"


Thanks for any assistance!

Eric

I believe it can be done readily in Word but I don't know any easy way in Excel. Even if you format the cells as text, it will still sort 1.10 before 1.2

As always, there are more than one way to skin a cat.

How about having 1.01 rather than 1.1?

Or you could set put each level in its own column, sort these, and concatenate them in a display column.

Unfortunately, the document is used to upload information into another system that is expecting a specific layout and values formatting. I have had it puke on formulas trying to do the display column bit. I am told by the admins that 1.01 is not going to work.

Seriously, in this world of tech having IP addresses, software versions, and all other kinds of reasons to use this format and have it sort properly, I can't imagine why Excel is so hard to deal with in this regard. Isn't there some way to build a mask to accomplish this? Some of my documents contain over 100 rows and manually updating each row is beyond inefficient.