Autonumbering a column in Excel

Question

In my first column, I want to autonumber it from 1, 2, 3, 4, ..., x. How do I do that?

Answer 1

Normally, you just fill A1 in with 1, fill A2 with the formula =A1+1, and then drag the black box on the bottom right of cell A2 down as far as you want to go.

Alternately, you can always just use =ROW() to have to output the row number of the cell.

Answer 2

For most sequences, you can do this:

• Start typing them down the column (like 1, 2, 3 or 2, 4, 6, or Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)
• Highlight the portion you have filled in
• Grab the bottom right corner of the highlighted selection and drag it down and Excel will fill in the rest of the sequence

Answer 3

use the fill down option under one of the menus

Answer 4

As you can check on the Microsoft Office Online Help, Excel doesn't have any tool for doing that, but you can fill it with the ROW function...

Quoting:

• Select the first cell in the range that you want to fill.
• Type the starting value for the series.
• Type a value in the next cell to establish a pattern.

For example, if you want the series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5..., type 1 and 2 in the first two cells. If you want the series 2, 4, 6, 8..., type 2 and 4.

• Select the cells that contain the starting values.
• Drag the fill handle (fill handle: The small black square in the lower-right corner of the selection. When you point to the fill handle, the pointer changes to a black cross.)
• Selected cell with fill handle across the range that you want to fill.

To fill in increasing order, drag down or to the right. To fill in decreasing order, drag up or to the left.