how do you auto change numbers when dragging in excel

If I put a 1 in row A1 amd drag it down it just continues with ones how can i make it so it goes 1,2,3,4,etc?

One of the interesting 'toggle' behaviors with the CTRL key is this.

If you have a 1 in a cell and hold CTRL down while dragging the cell down, Excel will fill in the series 1,2,3,...

If you don't hold CTRL down and drag, Excel will simply fill in the 1 in each cell.

If you have a 1 in a cell, say A1 and 2 in A2, then if you select A1:A2 and hold CTRL down while dragging down, Excel will simply repeat the 1,2 pattern.

If you don't hold down CTRL then, as Rick pointed out, Excel will fill the cells with the series 1,2,3,...

You can put this in any start cell, say in B2: =ROWS($1:1)

and just copy down as desired

And if the serial numbering is to begin from say, 100 (instead of 1),

just modify it like this in B2, copy down: =ROWS($1:1)+99

hello,

Can anyone tell me how to number alternate row in Excel? For example, I want to have 1 in A1, 2 in A3, 3 in A5 etc but I don't want to do it manually.  Is there a formula that can do that for me?

Someone may be able to tell you. If not it would be easy to add a row between them.

hello,

Can anyone tell me how to number alternate row in Excel? For example, I want to have 1 in A1, 2 in A3, 3 in A5 etc but I don't want to do it manually.  Is there a formula that can do that for me?