How to autocomplete a series or a list of numbers, dates, and formulas in Google Sheets

Google Sheets has come a long way over the years. At launch, it lacked many features that statisticians and spreadsheet users came to expect based on decades of Microsoft Excel use. While it’s not even close to Microsoft’s offering, even today, depending on who you ask or how fancy they need to get with it, Sheets is still pretty incredible.

One of my favorite tools is the ability to automatically autofill data to simplify life and streamline workflows. Today, I’m going to show you how to do exactly that with dates, numbers, and even formulas, so let’s get started!

Note: Before we get started, you’ll need to make sure that Autocomplete is enabled in your Sheet. To do this, just visit “Tools” at the top of the screen and then “Autocomplete”. Then, check “Enable auto-complete”.

Before we begin: Understanding lists and series

Alright, this is pretty straightforward. In order to use autofill, you’ll need at least two cells in a column or a row pre-filled with text, numbers, or dates. If you’ve met that requirement, you should also know that dates and numbers will autofill consecutively, while text will autofill based on patterns.

Let’s say, for example, that you have days of the week listed. In the video below, you’ll notice I wrote out Sunday and Monday. Google Sheets is smart enough to know that while auto-filling data, you want to complete the week, so that’s what it will do.

However, if you type in two colors in text format or something else that’s not traditionally listed for productivity purposes like a date would be, you’ll only get that text repeating in a pattern. For example, if you typed out red and blue, it would just copy and paste “Red”, and “Blue” over and over again because there’s no commonly accepted or utilized list or pattern for colors.

How to use Google Sheets Auto-complete

With that out of the way, let’s do a little practice and figure out how to autofill text, numbers, and formulas. After typing out two dates or days of the week, or even two numbers, all you’ll have to do is click and drag over them (either horizontally or vertically, however you’ve listed them). Then, you’ll see a blue box around your entire selection and a little blue square at the bottom-right side of that selection.

Click and hold the blue “fill handle” with your left mouse button and drag to the right or down depending on how you’ve listed your data. Once you let go, you’ll see the series or list continue intelligently!

As a quick note, you can also use this to fill down formulas or calculations as well. Simply take the cell with a sum total or formula in it and drag the fill handle to apply that calculation to all of the cells. See below for a great example from Spreadsheet Point.

I just want the steps!

1. Type at least two numbers, dates, or formulas in a list or series
2. Highlight at least two cells in the series
3. Grab and drag the “fill handle” at the bottom right of the selection using the left mouse button
4. Let go of the left mouse button and watch magic happen
5. Thank your AI overlords