Agnes,

see my reply to Tore for my shoot from the hip for each column to order correctly.
Not even tested for parens, but you will get the drift...

update: the second part should be something just on the line of "StripLeftDigits()"
function via looping IsDigit() to take care of leading zeroes

regards

thomas

>>try to get each word in a separate column in the select and order via SQL order by
>>
>>
>>thomas
>
>Thomas,
>
>it's still a problem since its mixed alpha and digit. The digits should be sorted as numbers, the alphas as alphas after the digits.
>
>As you can see in the message to Tore its a bit of PAD[L|R] to sort it out, but I need the lenght beforehand.
>
>
>Agnes