Add autonumbering to your Excel spreadsheet

Unlike Access, Excel does not have an autonumbering feature that increments a number each time you add a new row. With Excel 2003 and 2007, you can use the Row function to add your own autonumbering to a data list.

For example, say you are creating a list of all of your company’s products and their prices. Follow these steps to add your own autonumbering for the list:

1. In A1, enter this formula:
=TEXT(Row(A1),"000-000")
2. Enter the name of the first product in B1.
3. Enter the price of the first product in C1.
4. Copy cell A1 to A2.
5. Enter the name of the second product in B2.
6. Enter the price of the second product in C2.
7. Select A1:C2.
8. Go to Data | List and select Create List. (In Excel 2007, press [Ctrl]T, then click OK.)

Now when you type the name of the next product in B3 and press [Tab], Excel will automatically fill in the next number for you.

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