EDUCBA

EDUCBA

MENUMENU
  • Free Tutorials
  • Certification Courses
  • 120+ Courses All in One Bundle
  • Login
Home Excel Excel Resources Excel Tools Excel Fill Handle
Secondary Sidebar
Excel Functions
  • Excel Tools
    • Excel Shortcut Redo
    • Reduce Excel File Size
    • Quick Analysis in Excel
    • Goal Seek in Excel
    • Compare Two Lists in Excel
    • Excel Quick Analysis
    • Estimate Template in Excel
    • Pivot Table Count Unique
    • CSV Files into Excel
    • Excel Business Plan Template
    • Excel Export to PDF
    • Free Excel Template
    • Excel Repair
    • Color in Excel
    • Form Controls in Excel
    • Timecard Template in Excel
    • How to Unhide All Sheets in Excel?
    • Power Query in Excel
    • Power View in Excel
    • XML in Excel
    • Excel Evaluate Formula
    • Examples of Excel Macros
    • Consolidation in Excel
    • Ribbon in Excel
    • Excel Conditional Formatting for Dates
    • Protect Sheet in Excel
    • Data Model in Excel
    • Pivot Table Examples
    • Pivot Table Slicer
    • Pivot Table Filter
    • Watch Window in Excel
    • Slicer in Excel
    • Print Gridlines in Excel
    • Convert Numbers to Text in Excel
    • Freeze Columns in Excel
    • Spelling Check in Excel
    • Name Box in Excel
    • Solve Equation in Excel
    • Excel Spreadsheet Examples
    • What If Analysis in Excel
    • How to Print Labels From Excel
    • Excel Named Range
    • Excel TRANSPOSE Formula
    • Excel Merge and Center
    • Excel Freeze Rows
    • HLOOKUP Formula in Excel
    • Excel Create Database
    • Excel Gridlines
    • Excel Spreadsheet Formulas
    • Excel Sort By Number
    • Excel Concatenating Columns
    • Excel AutoCorrect
    • Conditional Formatting For Blank Cells
    • Excel Icon Sets
    • Excel CTRL D
    • Excel Accounting Number Format
    • Excel Regression Analysis
    • Excel Import Data
    • Excel Freeze Panes
    • Excel Calendar
    • Excel Developer Tab
    • Excel Enable Macros
    • Excel Autosave
    • Heat Map in Excel
    • Excel Toolbar
    • Excel Error Bar
    • Excel Status Bar
    • Excel Unprotect Sheet
    • Check mark in Excel
    • Excel Column Filter
    • Excel Header and Footer
    • Excel Drawing
    • Range in Excel
    • Timeline in Excel
    • Excel Lock Formula
    • Excel Table styles
    • Insert New Worksheet in Excel
    • Excel Column Lock
    • Excel Forms for Data Entry
    • QUOTIENT in Excel
    • Excel Sorting
    • Excel Sort by color
    • Excel Data Bars
    • Excel Tool for Data Analysis
    • Excel Flash Fill
    • Excel Auto Fill
    • Excel Quick Access Toolbar
    • Excel Wrap Text
    • Excel Exponential Smoothing
    • Excel ANOVA
    • Excel Merge Two Tables
    • Excel Conditional Formatting in Pivot Table
    • Dynamic Tables in Excel
    • Excel Sort by date
    • Excel Dynamic Range
    • Record Macro in Excel
    • Two Variable Data Table in Excel
    • Merge Cells in Excel
    • One Variable Data Table in Excel
    • Excel Fill Handle
    • CheckBox in Excel
    • Excel Table
    • Excel Combo Box
    • Auto Format in Excel
    • Advanced Filter in Excel
    • Excel AutoFilter
    • Excel Data Filter
    • Excel Data Validation
    • Excel Radio Button
    • Data Table in Excel
    • Text to Columns in Excel
    • Excel List box
    • Excel Solver Tool
    • Scrollbar in Excel
  • Excel Functions (12+)
  • Financial Functions in Excel (17+)
  • Logical Functions in Excel (14+)
  • Lookup and Reference Functions in Excel (35+)
  • Maths Function in Excel (47+)
  • TEXT and String Functions in Excel (26+)
  • Date and Time Function in Excel (24+)
  • Statistical Functions in Excel (59+)
  • Information Functions in Excel (4+)
  • Excel Charts (56+)
  • Excel Tips (222+)
  • Workplace Productivity (4+)
  • Microsoft Office Tools (15+)
  • Excel Formula and Functions (22+)
  • MS Excel Shortcuts (4+)
Excel Functions Courses
  • EXCEL ADVANCED Training
  • EXCEL Training COURSE

Excel Fill Handle

By Madhuri ThakurMadhuri Thakur

Fill Handle in Excel

Excel Fill Handle (Table of Contents)

  • Fill Handle in Excel
  • Enable fill handle if you cannot find the fill handle in Excel
  • How to Use Fill Handle in Excel?

Fill Handle in Excel

Fill Handle in excel is used to fill up the data by creating a series of value that either follows a pattern or check if the values we entered are of series. It is very easy to implement. Fill Handle is available at the right bottom of any cell. Enter some values such as numbers or alphabets, or dates in at least 3 cells to have a pattern. Select the cells with values and then either drag the Fill Handle or double click will also work here.

In the active cell of the worksheet, the fill handle is a small black box at the bottom right corner, as shown in the below image.

Excel Fill Handle

Start Your Free Excel Course

Excel functions, formula, charts, formatting creating excel dashboard & others

A basic level of knowledge about fill handle excel could save you tons of your productive time at your workplace.

All in One Excel VBA Bundle(120+ Courses, 30+ Projects)
Basic ExcelAdvanced ExcelVBA & MacrosExcel Dashboards
Pivot TablesStatistical FunctionsFinancial FunctionsCharts & Graphs
Price
View Courses
120+ Online Courses | 30+ Projects | 500+ Hours | Verifiable Certificates | Lifetime Access
4.9 (64,768 ratings)

It is a tool, which can be used to autocomplete a series of lists in excel. Generally, in excel, we enter serial numbers. Let us say serial numbers from 1 to 10 from cells A1:A10. We usually type 1, 2, 3, 4… Like that, isn’t it?

Instead of manual typing, we can use an excel fill handle to auto-fill the series of numbers, dates, days, etc.…

Enable fill handle if you cannot find the fill handle in Excel

If you do not find a fill handle in excel, you need to do some settings here. We can enable the fill handle option (although it is enabled by default, it may happen that you disable it by mistake).

Step 1: Go to File.

Go to File

Step 2: Go to Options.

Go to Options

Step 3: Select Advanced.

Select Advanced

Step 4: Make sure that you have to Enable fill handle and cell drag-and-drop option checked.

Enable fill handle

How to Use Fill Handle in Excel?

Fill handle in excel is very simple and easy to use. Let us understand the working of Excel Fill handle by some example.

Example #1

Assume you want to fill the numbers from 1 to 20 from cell A1 to A20. Here are the steps to auto-fill your series of numbers.

Step 1: Enter numbers 1 and 2 from A1:A2 and select those two cells.

Excel Fill Handle Example 1-1

Step 2: Hover the mouse over the bottom-right edge of the selection; you will see a plus icon appear – and drag until you find the cell A20.

Excel Fill Handle Example 1-2

Example #2

Pro tip: In the above case, you need to drag until you find your desired cell. However, if there is a value in the adjacent column, you can hover the mouse over the right edge of the selection and double-click. It will automatically fill the list to the last cell based on the data in the adjacent column.

Look at the below image, where I have a list of cities from B1 to B20. Now I need to insert serial numbers from A1 to A20.

Excel Fill Handle Example 2-1

I just need to type 1 and 2, select the two numbers, and double-click. It will fill until the cell A20.

Result of Example 2

Example #3

Autofill Numbers that Decrement by 1

As we have seen in the previous example, we can auto-fill numbers incremented by one. Similarly, we can insert numbers decremented by 1.

Step 1: Type 10 and 9 in the cells A1:A2.

Excel Fill Handle Example 3-1

Step 2: Since we do not have value in the adjacent column, we cannot double-click on the fill handle. Instead, drag until cell A10.

Excel Fill Handle Example 3-2

Step 3: Now, it will insert the numbers for you.

Result of Example 3

Example #4

Autofill Weekday Names (Both Short Name & Full Name)

We can use fill handle in Excel to autocomplete weekday names. It could be either the three alphabets nomenclature (Mon, Tue…) or the full name ( Monday, Tuesday )

Step 1: Type Mon & Tue from cell A1:A2. Now type Monday & Tuesday from B1:B2.

Excel Fill Handle Example 4-1

Step 2: Now, keep dragging the fill handle to auto-fill the weekday names.

Result of Example 4

Note: Once all the week names end, it will start over again from the day where you have started. In the above case, I started with Monday and ends on Sunday. Once I cross all the days in a week, it will again start from Monday only.

Example #5

Autofill Dates

We can auto-fill dates too. Any date format recognized by the excel it will auto-fill. We can increment the date by 1, by 2, like that we can auto-fill.

Excel Fill Handle Example 5-1

If we drag and drop the above dates, the first column will increment the date by 2, i.e. it will insert alternative days. The second column will increment by 1.

Result of Example 5

Example #6

Autofill Weekdays Dates

We can auto-fill only weekdays dates. Click on that Auto Fill Options.

Excel Fill Handle Example 6-1

These are the below options you will get. Now select Fill Weekdays.

Excel Fill Handle Example 6-2

It will insert only weekdays.

Result of Example 6

Similarly, you can exercise all the options listed in the above image.

Things to Remember

When we are inserting numbers, we get so many fill options. Look at all the options one by one.

Fill options

  • Copy Cell: If you select this option, it will simply copy-paste the cells from the above.
  • Fill Series: It fills the cells with numbers incrementing by 1.
  • Fill Formatting Only: It only fills the formatting and not the values.
  • Fill Without Formatting: This option fills the cells based on the recognized pattern but does not copy the formatting.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to Fill Handle in Excel. Here we discuss how to use the fill handle in excel to make your data entry easier, along with excel examples. You may learn more about Excel from the following articles –

  1. TRUE Function in Excel
  2. VBA AutoFill
  3. Excel Flash Fill
  4. Excel Auto Fill
Popular Course in this category
Excel Advanced Training (16 Courses, 23+ Projects)
  16 Online Courses |  23 Hands-on Projects |  140+ Hours |  Verifiable Certificate of Completion
4.8
Price

View Course

Related Courses

Excel Training (23 Courses, 9+ Projects)4.9
0 Shares
Share
Tweet
Share
Primary Sidebar
Footer
About Us
  • Blog
  • Who is EDUCBA?
  • Sign Up
  • Live Classes
  • Corporate Training
  • Certificate from Top Institutions
  • Contact Us
  • Verifiable Certificate
  • Reviews
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  •  
Apps
  • iPhone & iPad
  • Android
Resources
  • Free Courses
  • Excel Charts
  • Excel Tips
  • All Tutorials
Certification Courses
  • All Courses
  • Excel VBA Course - All in One Bundle
  • VBA Course
  • Excel Data Analysis Course
  • Excel for Marketing Course
  • Excel for Finance Course
  • Excel for HR Training

ISO 10004:2018 & ISO 9001:2015 Certified

© 2022 - EDUCBA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THE CERTIFICATION NAMES ARE THE TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

EDUCBA
Free Excel Course

Excel functions, formulas, charts, formatting creating excel dashboard & others

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

EDUCBA Login

Forgot Password?

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

EDUCBA
Free Excel Course

Excel functions, formula, charts, formatting creating excel dashboard & others

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Let’s Get Started

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

This website or its third-party tools use cookies, which are necessary to its functioning and required to achieve the purposes illustrated in the cookie policy. By closing this banner, scrolling this page, clicking a link or continuing to browse otherwise, you agree to our Privacy Policy

Loading . . .
Quiz
Question:

Answer:

Quiz Result
Total QuestionsCorrect AnswersWrong AnswersPercentage

Explore 1000+ varieties of Mock tests View more