Alphabetizing/sorting problem

[Nikki_Georgopul]

I have my base sorted by the primary field, which is single-line text, alphabetically from A-Z. Everything is working fine, except for a single record that is stuck at the top - which begins with the letter “L.” I have tried re-inputting the cell, but to no avail. All the other L records are where they should be, save this one stubborn one.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

[JonathanBowen]

Hi @Nikki_Georgopulos - I’d say almost certainly this is because you’ve got a space at the start of the “L” word. It won’t be very visible, but I am sure it will be there. See here:

As you can see in the second screenshot, there is a space at the start of it and the space is putting it at the front of the A -> Z list.

But…the Airtable UI doesn’t make this obvious when you are just looking at the list fo values, so it can be really difficult to spot.

[Nikki_Georgopul]

Thanks so much for your response! Unfortunately I had already thought of that and tried re-entering the cell entry, but no dice… But I’ll try again just in case!

[Justin_Barrett]

Perhaps the problem isn’t with that one entry, but with one or more of the others. Try this…

Make a formula field using this formula:

TRIM({Primary field name})

…obviously changing the field name to match your field. That will strip off any hidden spaces if they exist. Then take that entire field’s contents, copy it, then paste it into you primary field, overwriting all the existing values. Let us know if that changes the sort.

[Nikki_Georgopul]

Thanks again for the feedback/advice. I really don’t know what the problem was - I tried seeking out sneaky extra spaces, but to no avail. I ended up deleting the record, waiting a couple days, and adding it back in again and it magically worked. But thanks to everyone for their responses!