Excel: Filled Series Not Incremented with Cell Reference

• Microsoft Excel for Windows, version 4.0

SYMPTOMS

Page 125 of the "Users Guide 1," suggests that you can create a series by entering data into two cells, selecting those cells, and dragging the fill handle. While this method works for most types of data, it does not work if the cells contain cell references. When you attempt to fill a selection that contains a cell reference, the series is not incremented correctly.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, do the following:

1. In Cell A1, type the cell reference with a letter before the equal sign. In cell A2, type the next value you want to appear in the incremented series, as in the following example:

         A1: E=B5
         A2: E=B10
   

2. Drag the fill handle down. The numbers will now be incremented (because the cell value is treated as a text value).

3. Use the fill handle to fill this line down. Your results should be similar to the following:

         A1: E=B5
         A2: E=B10
         A3: E=B15
         A4: E=B20
         A5: E=B25
         A6: E=B30
   

4. Select the series and choose Replace from the Formula menu.

5. In the Find What box, type the letter you used earlier, ("E" in this example) and an equal sign.

6. In the Replace With box type an equal sign and choose Replace All.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce the Behavior

1. Enter the following in your worksheet:

   A1: =B5 A2: =B10

2. Select these two cells and drag to fill the series. The resulting data should resemble the following:

         A1: =B5
         A2: =B10
         A3: =B7
         A4: =B12
         A5: =B9
         A6: =B14
   

REFERENCES

"User's Guide 1," version 4.0, pages 124-125