Varying Format "Part Number" sort issue - vba

Question

(Current Sort Sample:)
2-1203-4
2-1206-3
2CM-
3-1610-1
3-999
…
AR3021-A-7802
AR3021-A-7802-1
B43570-
B43570-3
I am working on an 8000+ record parts list. The challenge I am running into is that different manufactures of the parts are using many varying formats for their part numbers. “Part Number” is the field I wish to sort my entire worksheet on. (There are about 10 columns of data in this worksheet.)
My methodology for attacking this challenge was to count the number of characters to the left of any “-“ and count the total number of numeric characters in the field. (I also set “Part Numbers” that started with a non-numeric character to a count value of 99 for both count calculations so those would sort after the numeric values.) From this, I was able to sort on the values to the left of the “-“ using .the MIN of the two counts. (My “Part Numbers” are in Column B and I have a header row which means that my first “Part Number” is in cell B2.)
This method worked up to a point. My challenge is that I need to subsequently sort values after the “-“ character as is illustrated by the erroneous sort of “3-1610-1” being followed by “3-999”
One of the limitations I see is that sorting with  Data  Sort only gives three columns to sort on. To sort on just the characters to the left of the “-“ is costing me those three columns. So, I am unable to repeat the whole process of counting values after the “-“ character and subsequently sorting with  Data  Sort after running the primary sort.
Has the sort of many differing formats of a field such as “Part Number” been solved? Is there a macro that can be applied to this challenge? If so, I would be grateful for your input.
This data is continuously updated with new part numbers so the goal here is to be able to add those additional part numbers to the bottom of the worksheet and use a macro to correctly resort the appended list.
For the record, I am not married to my approach. After all, it didn’t solve my challenge!
Thank you,
Darrell

Answer 1

Place this procedure in a standard code moule:
Public Sub PartNumberSortFormat()
Dim i&, j&, f, vIn, vOut
vIn = [b2:index(b:b,match("*",b:b,-1))]
vOut = vIn
For i = 1 To UBound(vIn)
f = Split(Replace(vIn(i, 1), " ", ""), "-")
For j = 0 To UBound(f)
If IsNumeric(f(j)) Then
f(j) = Format$(f(j), "000000")
Else
f(j) = String$(6 - Len(f(j)), "0") & f(j)
End If
Next
vOut(i, 1) = Join(f, "-")
Next
Columns(1).Insert xlToRight
[a1] = "SORT COLUMN"
[a2].Resize(UBound(vOut)) = vOut
Columns(1).EntireColumn.AutoFit
End Sub
After running the procedure, you will notice that it has inserted a new column A on your worksheet and your data has been scooted over to the right by one column.
This new column A will contain a copy of your part numbers, reformatted in such a fashion to allow normal sorting.
Now select all of the data INCLUDING this new column A and sort A-Z on column A.
After the sort, you may delete the new column A.
This works by padding all characters surrounding dashes to six zeroes.

Answer 2

My Thoughts:
Excel 2010 onwards lets you sort using as many columns as you like. (Not sure about 2007). Don't know which version you have!
You could use the formula SUBSTITUTE to remove all "-" from the part number then sort on the number that remains, which gives you a order more like the one you are wanting.
eg
Value =SUBSTITUTE(B2,"-","")
3-15 315
3-888 3888
3-999 3999
3-1610 31610
3-2610 32610
3-1610-1 316101
3-2610-3 326103
It's not exactly what you need though!
Combine this with other formulas (or a VBA function) to manipulate you part number to be more sortable.
You could use FIND to find the position of the first "-" and extract the numbers before it into one column.
Similarly using FIND, MID and LEN you could extract the numbers between a part number two "-".
I suspect if will be best to write a VBA function to convert a part number into a "sortable value". This might splitting the part number into it's component bits (ie each bit being the text between the "-")
(VBA function split might useful for this. It creates an array.
If you know the formats of ALL the part numbers that can be delivered, you can code accordingly.
I suspect you code will take a numbers like and convert them as shown
AB123-456-78 AB12300456007800
AB12-45-7 AB12000450007000
AB12-45 AB12000450000000
ie padding with zeros each component of the part number
The key to sorting the TEXTUAL values into the order you want is understanding how textuals values get sorted! Do some experiments. Then create zero (or "9") padded numbers that sort the numbers as you required.
I hope this helps.

Answer 3

While not a technical answer to the Excel question, I am a logistician working with extremely large data sets of part numbers - always varying in format. The standard approach used in my field is to "ignore" (remove) special characters from the P/N and append the (clean) P/N to the 5-digit CAGE (manufacturer) code to create a "unique" CAGE + (clean) P/N code for sorting, lookup, etc. Create a column for that construct.