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Autofill is a feature in Google Sheets that allows users to quickly and easily fill in a series of letters in a specific pattern. By simply selecting the first few letters of the alphabet and dragging the fill handle, the rest of the alphabet will automatically be filled in, saving time and reducing the risk of errors. This feature is especially useful for creating lists or organizing data in alphabetical order. It is a convenient and efficient tool for users who frequently work with alphabetized data in Google Sheets.
Autofill Letters of the Alphabet in Google Sheets
Often you may want to autofill the letters of the alphabet in Google Sheets from A to Z.
Fortunately this is easy to do using the CODE and CHAR functions in Google Sheets and the following example shows how to do so.
Example: How to Autofill Letters of the Alphabet in Google Sheets
To autofill letters of the alphabet, you must first manually type in the first letter you’d like to start with.
For example, we’ll type “A” into cell A1:
Next, we’ll type the following formula into cell A2:
=CHAR(CODE(A1)+1)
This formula will return the letter “B” in cell A2:
Lastly, we can hover over the bottom right corner of cell A2 until a tiny cross (+) appears, then click and drag the formula down to as many cells as we’d like to autofill additional letters of the alphabet:
The result is a column of letters ranging from A to Z:
Note: If you start with a lowercase “a” in cell A1 instead, then the formula will autofill all lowercase letters of the alphabet.
How This Formula Works
Recall the formula that we used in cell A2:
=CHAR(CODE(A1)+1)
Here is how this formula works:
First, we use the CODE function to return the ASCII code number associated with the letter in cell A1. This returns 65.
Then we add 1 to get 66.
Then we use the CHAR function to return the character associated with the ASCII code number of 66, which is the letter B.
The formula in the next cell adds 1 again to get 67. Then the CHAR function returns the character associated with the ASCII code number of 67, which is the letter C.
The formula uses this same process to generate each letter of the alphabet.
Note: You can find the complete set of ASCII code numbers .
Additional Resources
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in Google Sheets: