Best Practice when dealing with a column that has a number (but is not really used as such)

[Anonymous]

So, as the title of my post suggest, I have a column that is a number.   It is the line number of a PO.    For example, 

Order          Line       Qty     Item 

A123-G          1          19      Red item

A123-G          2          4        Blue item

A123-G          3          13      Green item

Although I have no reason to sum this line up (1+2+3) or really any other math, I do need to count the number of lines, and I frequently like to sort the lines in order ascending or descending order.   

I'm sure this is a common scenario - what is the best practice?    A data field as Text  or  as a Whole Number  ?  

[jdbuchanan71 · Accepted solution]

If you want to have them sort you will want to go with whole number. 

If they are text 12 < 2.  

Just make sure to set the default aggregation to "Don't summarize"