38 Excel
or dates. You can use Autofi ll to generate automatically columns containing
data values such as:
1, 2, 3, 4,... 9, 10;
1, 2, 4, 8,... 128, 256;
Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr,... , Nov, Dec;
and so forth.
In the service station data, you have a sequence of numbers, 1–9, that
represent the service stations. You could enter the values by hand, but this
is also an opportunity to use the Autofi ll feature.To use Autofi ll to fi ll in the rest of the service station numbers:1 Select the range A2:A3.
Notice the small black box at the lower right corner of the double
border around the selected range. This is called a fi ll handle. To cre-
ate a simple sequence of numbers, you’ll drag this fi ll handle over a
selected range of cells.
2 Move the mouse pointer over the fill handle until the pointer
changes from a to a. Click and hold down the mouse button.
3 Drag the fi ll handle down to cell A10 and release the mouse button.
Note that as you drag the fi ll handle down, a screen is displayed
showing the value that will be placed in the active cell if you release
the mouse button at that point.
4 Figure 2-2 shows the service station numbers placed in the cell
range A2:A10.Figure 2-2
Using
Autofill to
insert a
sequence of
data values
drag the fill
handle down to
generate a linear
sequence of
numbers
automatically