Forum Discussion

Copper Contributor

Jul 11, 2019

Solved

Continue Pattern (includes letters and numbers)

I'd like to continue this pattern on this spreadsheet, but every time I try to drag it it will repeat the pattern (A, B, C, D, A, B, C, D) instead of continuing with the alphabet (A, B, C, D, E...

excel

Formulas and Functions

Haytham Amairah
Jul 11, 2019
katie_lacy

Hi,

Please put this formula in the first cell, then drag it to the right and all the way down.
=ROW(A21)&RIGHT(B$1)

It's done by depending on the letters in the headers (Column A, Column B, etc) as a reference in the formula.

Hope that helps

Brad_Yundt

MVP

Jul 11, 2019

katie_lacy

Here is a macro that will do the needful, as long as you don't need more than 26 letters.

Put the starting value in the first cell, then select the range you want filled and run the macro.

Sub FillAlphaSeries()
'Appends successive alphabetic characters to each cell in a selection. _
The first cell in selection will retain its original value. Each sucessive cell will increment the rightmost character code by 1. _
In so doing, you can create a series like 21A, 21B, 21C.
Dim cel As Range, rg As Range
Dim root As String
Dim i As Long
Set rg = Selection
root = rg.Cells(1).Value
i = Asc(Right(root, 1))
root = Left(root, Len(root) - 1)
For Each cel In rg.Cells
cel.Value = root & Chr(i)
i = i + 1
Next

End Sub