Enter numbers, text, and dates correctly and fill series quickly with the fill handle.
Data types and AutoFill
Text, numbers, dates, and the fill handle
Excel distinguishes three main data types. A number is a value you can calculate with: 42, 3.14, -10. Excel aligns numbers to the right of the cell. Text is any sequence of characters that Excel doesn't recognize as a number or a date: “Apple”, “SKU 001”, “123abc”. Text is left-aligned. A date is a special kind of number: inside, it's a number, but it's displayed as 1/1/2025. If you type a number with slashes (1/1/2025), Excel recognizes it as a date automatically.
The fill handle is the small square in the bottom-right corner of the selected cell. Drag it down or right, and Excel continues the pattern: enter 1 in A1 and 2 in A2, select both cells, drag the handle down — you get 3, 4, 5… If only one cell with a number is selected, Excel copies the value instead (there's no pattern). For text lists (Mon, Tue, Wed… or January, February…), one value is enough — Excel knows these lists. For dates, each step adds one day.
The main rule: Excel looks for a pattern in the selected cells. One cell with an ordinary number — a copy. Two or more cells with different numbers — the series continues with the same step.
Lesson notes
Text, numbers, dates, and the fill handle
Excel distinguishes three main data types. A number is a value you can calculate with: 42, 3.14, -10. Excel aligns numbers to the right of the cell. Text is any sequence of characters that Excel doesn't recognize as a number or a date: “Apple”, “SKU 001”, “123abc”. Text is left-aligned. A date is a special kind of number: inside, it's a number, but it's displayed as 1/1/2025. If you type a number with slashes (1/1/2025), Excel recognizes it as a date automatically.
The fill handle is the small square in the bottom-right corner of the selected cell. Drag it down or right, and Excel continues the pattern: enter 1 in A1 and 2 in A2, select both cells, drag the handle down — you get 3, 4, 5… If only one cell with a number is selected, Excel copies the value instead (there's no pattern). For text lists (Mon, Tue, Wed… or January, February…), one value is enough — Excel knows these lists. For dates, each step adds one day.
The main rule: Excel looks for a pattern in the selected cells. One cell with an ordinary number — a copy. Two or more cells with different numbers — the series continues with the same step.