Sorting Problem (maybe)

[MrYoda1]

I noticed something when trying to sort a list of names. It may have been happening all the time and I never noticed it, but I'm not getting the results I'm expecting. I have three columns that contains each part of the person's name. Column A has the Last Name, Column B has the First Name and Column C has the Middle name. Given the list below:

Hernandez Juan Jose
Hernandez Juan Aletto
Hernandez Juan
Hernandez Juan Jesus

when I sort by LastName then FirstName then MiddleName (all in the same sort) the results are not what I think they should be. The instance where there is no middle name always sorts to the bottom of the list. The three names where a middle name exists sort correctly.

My problem is if I were to do this by hand for, say, putting folders into a filing cabinet I would follow the alphabetizing rule that says "nothing comes before something" and I would put the folder with no middle name in the front with the other folders behind it. Excel doesn't seem to follow this rule.

I'm sure I'm missing something. Any idea why this occurs?

[Luuk]

'Empty cells' are always sorted as last

One workaround could be to put a spec in the 'empty cell', which should make it not empty anymore.

Google will find some other workarounds too
(excel sort empty cells first site:microsoft. com)