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How to automatically increase letter by one to get the next letter in Excel?

Author Siluvia Last modified

Supposing you have a cell contains letter AB, you need to increase the last letter by one to get the next letter AC, AD…and so on. Or you have a letter A, and want to increase the letter to B, C…in order to create a letter list. How to achieve it? This article can help you in details.

Increase letter AB by one to get AC, AD…with formula
Increase letter by one to get the letter list with formula
Increase letter by one to get the letter list with User-defined function

Increase letter AB by one to get AC, AD…with formula

Please do as follows to increase letter by one in Excel.

1. Select a blank cell below the given letter, enter the below formula into it and then press the Enter key. 

=IF(RIGHT($A2,1)="Z", CHAR(CODE(LEFT(A2,1))+1),LEFT(A2,1))&CHAR(65+MOD(CODE(RIGHT(A2,1))+1-65,26))

a screenshot of using formula to increase letter AB by one to get AC, AD...

Note: In the formula, A2 is the cell contains the given letter.

2. Keep selecting A3, drag the Fill Handle down to get the list of letters you need.

a screenshot of a list of letters after dragging the formula cell's Fill Handle down

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Increase letter A by one to get the letter list with formula

You can use the =CHAR(CODE(A1)+1) formula to increase letter by one in Excel. Please do as follows.

1. Select a blank cell below the given letter, enter formula =CHAR(CODE(A2)+1) into the Formula Bar and then press the Enter key. See screenshot:

a screenshot of using formula to increase letter A by one

2. Select the result cell, drag the Fill Handle down to get the letter you need.

a screenshot of a list of letter

Note: With this formula, after getting the letter Z, if you keep dragging the Fill Handle down, you will get some special characters as below screenshot shown. If you want to get letter AA after Z, the following user-defined function can help you.

a screenshot of some special characters that follow the letter Z

Increase letter by one to get the letter list with User-defined function

The following user-defined function can also help you to increase letter by one in Excel.

1. Press Alt + F11 keys simultaneously to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

2. In the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window, click Insert > Module. Then copy and paste the below VBA code into the Module window.

VBA code: Increase letter by one to get the letter list

Function ColLtrs(i As Long) As String
    ColLtrs = Replace(Cells(1, i).Address(False, False), "1", "")
End Function

3. Press Alt + Q keys to close the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

4. Select a blank cell below the given letter, enter formula =ColLtrs(ROW()), and then press the Enter key to get the second letter.

a screenshot of using the user-defined function to increase letter by one

2. Select the result cell, drag the Fill Handle down to get the letter you need.

Note: With this method, letters you increased are based on the row number. You need to start the first letter A in the first row of the worksheet, otherwise, the letter will getting disordered.

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