Why can't I autofill the alphabet?

[Guest]

When I try to autofill a column in Excel to read a, b, c through x, y, z it
only copies the a,b,c,a,b,c,a,b,c. Is there something hidden somewhere that
I can change to make it autofill correctly?

 

[oteixeira]

Hi

I have this workaround:
Go to Tools, Options and choose Custom List. Then build a list with the
alphabet (a,c,d,e....)
Enter "a" in a cell and then drag down. Cells will be populated with
the entire aplphabet.

Hope it helps,

Octávio

 

[Guest]

oteixeira has given the correct answer and provided the workaround that's
probably used by most people. But if you don't want Excel to use your
created list of the alphabet, here are a couple of formulas that will achieve
the same thing:

Start in any cell, for this example, we will assume you're starting in the
middle of a sheet, say at cell B12. In B12 enter this:
=CHAR(65+ROW(B12)-ROW(B$12))
and drag it down the page - capital letters will appear in sequence. If you
need lowercase letters, use 97 instead of 65. Be sure you get that $ in
front of the second reference to cell B12.

If you need to go horizontally left to right then start with (again A in B12)

=CHAR(65+COLUMN(B12)-COLUMN($B12))