Brian, It works.
Yes the cells are empty not blank. And adding a space, " ", to each cell changed the sort as desired. Have to update formulas in the worksheet now that the cells are not empty to get the desired results in the formula cells. Though this solution works I would say it is not desirable because empty and blank cells look the same. To most users there is no difference. And, for updating worksheets, if a space is required instead of a blank anyone who uses the worksheet needs to understand that and remember to do it. I believe Excel does provide this feature. It is an optional setting so empty cells sort before or after cells containing values. (Didn't actually pop Excel open and check, this is just from memory). Can you tell me how this would be submitted to the OpenOffice development team as an enhancement suggestion? Thank you. On 10/12/07, Brian Barker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > At 16:02 12/10/2007 -0400, Alan Boba wrote: > >I've got a table in Calc v 2.3.0 that I'd like to sort. > > > >One of the columns to be used in the sort contains either a date > >value or is blank. I'd like to be able to sort the blanks before the > >dates. Regardless of whether I select ascending or descending sort > >for that column the blanks always sort after the dates. (Dates sort > >ascending or descending as selected but blanks always come after them.) > > > >Is there a way to make the blanks sort before the dates? > > When you say "blank", I take it that you mean that the cell is empty, > since blanks don't behave as you describe. And that may be the > solution: an explicit blank - or a number of blanks - will sort after > dates. So if you could change your empty cells to contain a blank - > which would display the same and might even calculate the same as an > empty cell - and then sort descending, you will get blanks followed > by dates (followed by genuinely empty cells). > > I trust this helps. > > Brian Barker > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >
