Sorting problem in excel or other program?

Today, working on MS Excel worksheet, I find a strange problem. I had list of names in a column. I tried to sort the names according to alphabetical order with excel option.
Menu --> data --> sort --> Column and option of Ascending or Descending order. However, I did not find the output as per my expectation. The program did not sort for names starting with double 'a' correctly. I checked it with SPSS and find the same problem. Can anyone tell me what is the reason for it?
You can try to sort the following names and you may not find it as a problem though (just an example)
Amin
Fujal
Bandat
Aamar
Danjug

The ascending order of the above list should be: Amin, Aamar, Bandat, Danjug, Fujal. But it sorted with Amin, Bandat, Danjug, Fujal, Aamar in my computer.

Can you guess what is the reason for it?. Yes, it is a key board language setting. In a Norwegian keyboard setting, AA means 'Å' letter which comes after letter 'Z'. Therefore, if you are using different keyboard and that language has extra letters, you may face similar problem in sorting or similar process. You may not face a problem if you use same language as keyboard setting but if one of them is different, the problem may arise.

Comments

Anonymous said…
the right order after sorting is:
Aamar
Amin
Bandat
Danjug
Fujal

make sure you have no other hiden character(s) before the one that is in the wrong place.

thanks, -jin
Saggyani said…
Thanks, you are right. The right order is Aamar, Amin, Bandat and Danjug, and Fujal.

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