Auto decides from the whole nonblank column
Auto uses numeric sorting only when every nonblank value in the selected column can be read as a finite number. If even one nonblank value is nonnumeric, the column is treated as text. That keeps the interpretation consistent instead of switching comparison rules row by row.
Blank values always go to the bottom
Blank cells are placed after nonblank values in both ascending and descending order. In Number mode, nonnumeric values also fall after valid numeric rows instead of poisoning the numeric comparison.
Zero is a real number
0 is not treated as “missing.” Values such as 0, -1, -2 sort numerically as expected. This sounds obvious, but zero is a common edge case in JavaScript data handling because it is falsy.
Text sorting uses natural-style comparison
Text mode uses locale comparison with numeric awareness, so strings such as item2 and item10 sort more naturally than simple character-code order. It does not parse mixed date formats as actual dates, though.
A practical example
Use Auto or Number for clean price/score columns and Text for names or codes. ISO dates such as 2026-09-01 sort well as text, but mixed date formats should be normalized first.
If you want the deeper picture