In Numbers, I have created a worksheet. Column A is the date. (formatted on cell date and time {January 1, 2026}) When I sort the dates, all work well exact the month of September will not accept the format. It is always at the bottom of the ascension or descension of the column. Please explain the problem with September, Sept, Sep .
Mac Studio, macOS 15.6
Check the format of the cells. It appears that the dates in September are text.
Sept is not an accepted abbreviation in Date&Time format, at least not in the US region.. Any that use "Sept" will be text and will not sort as dates. You cannot force them to be dates, they will be text. You can try but it will revert back to "automatic", which will be text.
Check the format of the cells. It appears that the dates in September are text.
Sept is not an accepted abbreviation in Date&Time format, at least not in the US region.. Any that use "Sept" will be text and will not sort as dates. You cannot force them to be dates, they will be text. You can try but it will revert back to "automatic", which will be text.
If you make them all text, they will sort alphabetically rather than in date order.
Reverting back to automatic indicates Numbers does not see them as date&time. I'm having a hard time figuring out why from what you've said so far. What happens if you select one of those cells, hit Delete to get rid of what is there now, then retype the date in the format 09/03/26 ? It should justfy on the right side of the cell (text justifies to the left unless the user changed it) and the format should be "automatic" with settings below that for date & time. Those additional format settings indicates it is date&time.
Can I make the entire column just text or number or automatic and they will then all ascend properly?
The whole column has to be the same type - in this case 'Date & Time'. That's what Badunit is trying to tell you.
If the cells are marked as Text, then they'll be sorted alphabetically., with April coming first and September coming last.
If the cells are marked as different types then Numbers will come first, then dates, followed by text strings.
From the description, it does sound like your cells are Text, not Date cells, and that's where you should probably focus.
Can you show an example of this? I can't replicate it.
I created a table of every date in 2026, formatted to show full month name, day and year.
No matter how I sort this (via ascending or descending), the list shows exactly as I expect. September is right where it should be.
Therefore there's either something different about your data, or how you're sorting it. Since I can't see that, there's not much more I can add.
So, when you are working in numbers, creating a spreadsheet with dates…the September months, no matter the way you type it in ie: 09/25/26, Sep 09, 2026, September 09, 2026, September 09, etc , it will not place itself between August and September when ascending nor descending order? It there a solution? Can I make the entire column just text or number or automatic and they will then all ascend properly?
I am trying to post a screenshot but it won’t upload . Would like to be able to discuss. Took a screenshot, saved it on desktop and tried to upload from image below but it sent to entire file.
Yes, it reverts to automatic no matter what the date and time option I choose. Do you have an idea what would work?
September dates do not sort correctly in Numbers
