Sorting query

[David Squance]

Can someone enlighten me as to why sorting appears to be inconsistent?  I
put the following as a simple column (no commas) into a field:
1,5,4,2A,7,3A,6 and sort numeric.  The column will appear in the following
order:  1,2A,3A,4,5,6,7 as expected.  However, when I try to sort (numeric)
a stack of cards (or at least the marked cards of a stack) by the last word
of a field which is a number, or a number followed by a letter as in this
example, then the cards will appear in the following order: 2A,3A,1,4,5,6,7

RR2.1.2,  OS10.3.5

TIA, Dave