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How to auto fill serial numbers and skip blanks in a list of cells?

Author Xiaoyang Last modified

If you have a list of data which contains some blank cells, now, you want to insert serial numbers for the data, but skip the blank cells as below screenshot shown. In this article, I will introduce a formula for solving this task in Excel.

auto fill serial numbers and skip blanks

Auto fill serial numbers and skip blank cells with formula

To skip the blank cells when filling serial numbers for the data, you can create a formula based on COUNTA, ISBLANK, and IF functions:

Step1: Enter the following formula into a blank cell where you want to insert the serial numbers:

=IF(ISBLANK(A2),"",COUNTA($A$2:A2))

Step2: Then, drag the fill handle down to fill this formula to other cells, and the serial numbers are filled into the cells but avoiding the blank cells, see screenshot:

use a formula to auto fill serial numbers and skip blanks

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