How to: Automatically Fill Ranges with Incrementally Changing Data

The AutoFill method of the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range object enables you to fill a range in a worksheet with values automatically. Most often, the AutoFill method is used to store incrementally increasing or decreasing values in a range. You can specify the behavior by supplying an optional constant from the XlAutoFillType enumeration.

Applies to: The information in this topic applies to document-level projects and application-level projects for Excel 2007 and Excel 2010. For more information, see Features Available by Office Application and Project Type.

You must specify two ranges when using AutoFill:

• The range that calls the AutoFill method, which specifies the starting point of the fill and contains an initial value.

• The range that you want to fill, passed as a parameter to the AutoFill method. This destination range must include the range that contains the initial value.

  Note

  You cannot pass a Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.NamedRange control in place of the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range. For more information, see Programmatic Limitations of Host Items and Host Controls.

Example

Private Sub AutoFill()
    Dim rng As Excel.Range = Me.Application.Range("B1")
    rng.AutoFill(Me.Application.Range("B1:B5"), Excel.XlAutoFillType.xlFillWeekdays)

    rng = Me.Application.Range("C1")
    rng.AutoFill(Me.Application.Range("C1:C5"), Excel.XlAutoFillType.xlFillMonths)

    rng = Me.Application.Range("D1:D2")
    rng.AutoFill(Me.Application.Range("D1:D5"), Excel.XlAutoFillType.xlFillSeries)
End Sub

private void AutoFill()
{
    Excel.Range rng = this.Application.get_Range("B1", missing);
    rng.AutoFill(this.Application.get_Range("B1","B5"), 
        Excel.XlAutoFillType.xlFillWeekdays); 

    rng = this.Application.get_Range("C1", missing); 
    rng.AutoFill(this.Application.get_Range("C1","C5"),
        Excel.XlAutoFillType.xlFillMonths);

    rng = this.Application.get_Range("D1","D2");
    rng.AutoFill(this.Application.get_Range("D1","D5"),
        Excel.XlAutoFillType.xlFillSeries); 
}

Compiling the Code

The first cell of the range that you want to fill must contain an initial value.

The example requires that you fill three regions:

• Column B is to include five weekdays. For the initial value, type Monday in cell B1.

• Column C is to include five months. For the initial value, type January in cell C1.

• Column D is to include a series of numbers, incrementing by two for each row. For the initial values, type 4 in cell D1 and 6 in cell D2.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Refer to Worksheet Ranges in Code

How to: Apply Styles to Ranges in Workbooks

How to: Run Excel Calculations Programmatically

Concepts

Working with Ranges

Host Items and Host Controls Overview

Optional Parameters in Office Solutions