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

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))

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.

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:

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

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.

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.

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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Comments (19)
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Mayra Lopez
Mayra Lopez
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I need a code to help make my rows from 1-A to 1-Z please
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crystal
crystal     Mayra Lopez
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Hi Mayra Lopez,
The VBA code provided in the post is still helpful, but you need to apply the following formula to get the results you need:
="1-"&ColLtrs(ROW())
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Willie B
Willie B
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How would I create a formula that advances like this?:

AAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAB
AAAAAAAAC
AAAAAAAAD
etc.
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crystal
crystal     Willie B
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Hi Willie B,
You can try the VBA code provided in the post. After adding the code, use this formula to get the result you need:
="AAAAAAAA"&ColLtrs(ROW())
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Rachel Hita
Rachel Hita
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I need a code for increasing my row cell values from AA-01-A01, AA-01-A02 to AA-01-B01, AA-01-B02. And I also need a code for my colomn cell values from AA-01-A01, AA-01-A02 to AA-03-A01, A-03-A02. Help.
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KarenS
KarenS
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I need a code from A-Z, AA-ZZ, AAA to ZZZ, AAAA to ZZZZ
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crystal
crystal     KarenS
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Hi,Sorry can't help with this problem. You can post the problem to the forum below to get help from other Excel enthusiasts.
https://www.extendoffice.com/forum/kutools-for-excel.html 
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brickh7777@gmail.com
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How do I get it to start over at A when Z is used?
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Zac
Zac
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This code will allow you to go from A to ZZ.

=IF(B2="Z","AA",IF(LEN(B2)=1,CHAR(CODE(B2)+1),IF(RIGHT(B2,1)="Z",CHAR(CODE(LEFT(B2,1))+1),LEFT(B2,1))&CHAR(65+MOD(CODE(RIGHT(B2,1))+1-65,26))))
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Gazza
Gazza     Zac
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Thank you Zac for the letter sequence formula, saved me a ton load of work
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Dan
Dan
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Is there a way to do this for entire words? Where every letter in the word moves up by X number of characters
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Harold McBroom
Harold McBroom
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Excel was the spreadsheet that superseded Lotus 1-2-3, and having been around that long, you would think that geniuses at Microsoft would have created a more simple means of retrieving a cells column number, without having to write your own function. Back in 2001, 2002 when I was programming in VBA there were only 65536 rows in an Excel spreadsheet, now the number has increased to a ridiculous 1.4 million rows. It's not how big the database is that counts, but how intelligent you manage the data on your hard drive, when accessing that data through Excel.

If that doesn't make you upset, then the Bankers Rounding scheme used by Excel should finish the job! We were taught math in school, basic rounding, come to find out, the Bankers "guild" wants to determine how cash amounts are rounded to better cater to their advantages. For instance, 1.5 is either closer to 1 or 2, but is rounded up to 2, being the even number. 0.5 is either closer to 0 or 1, but being the odd number, they round it down to 0. The entire system is corrupt, and they create the business software used by American businesses.



I read a comment below the one I'm addressing, and someone basically said, "I have a lot of banker friends, and they never heard of Bankers Rounding; They say they used a method called "5 Step Rounding" in the EU. So does that mean the Bankers Rounding is used only in the sabotage of the American Economy, but not good enough to ruin the European Economy that's trying to take over the world?! These money changers never cease to amaze me at how far they will go in their arrogance!
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Me
Me     Harold McBroom
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Everything man does is corrupt. Everything.
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afzalss
afzalss
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Dear Sir
When I run the function =ColLtrs(ROW()) in an excel sheet, I get perfect results, but if I want to call this function or cell value in VBA, then is it possible. So my variable could be i with values 1,2,3,4,....27,28, etc and result should be A,B,C,D....,AA,AB and so on. Is it possible?
Thanks
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crystal
crystal     afzalss
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Hi,
Please select the number cells and run the below code to solve the problem.

Sub NumTOAZ()
Dim xRg As Range
Dim xStr As String
On Error Resume Next
For Each xRg In Selection
xStr = Replace(Cells(1, xRg.Value).Address(False, False), "1", "")
xRg.Value = xStr
Next
End Sub
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Afzal
Afzal
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the formula =ColLtrs(ROW()) works perfectly well in an excel cell, I need to use the same inside a VBA to give me result from A to Z then AA to AZ and so on. If I use CHAR in VBA it has limitation to go only till Z.
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crystal
crystal     Afzal
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Hi,
Way not keep using the VBA code? The above VBA code can create letters from A to Z then AA to AZ and so on to meet your needs.
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