title: Sort a list of years within a cell in Excel
body: <p>I am trying to sort a set of numbers within a cell in Excel and need to maintain the same formatting. Specifically, in column A I have a set of cells with years being shown in descending order. The years are separated by a comma and a space when there is more than one year. For example:</p>
  
  <pre><code>  A    
  1 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012
  2 2015
  3 2017, 2016, 2015
  4 2017, 2016
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What formula can I use so that the years in the cells now sort in ascending order so that in column B I will see:</p>
  
  <pre><code>  B    
  1 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
  2 2015
  3 2015, 2016, 20175
  4 2016, 2017
  </code></pre>