Numbers sorting problem

September 2025, Numbers version 14.4 (7043.0.93)

While recently working on a website that contained nearly 4,000 names I discovered an error in Numbers and Pages tables. The error is in the sorting algorithm. Above is a simple example of a list of surnames.

After sorting the column, the spreadsheet looked like this:

You will see that names that contain a double 'a' have been incorrectly placed.

• Kraam should be above Krammer
• Aarvark should be at the top above Anderson

I have found that this sorting error is in other applications too. Apple has been notified of this serious error (several times) so we hope that the next version will see this fixed. The error is in all Apple devices.

In the meantime, it is necessary to use another application to sort lists. I use BBEdit, a text editor.