It would be more robust to allow the formula to be started (entered) in
*any* row (cell), and still allow the column index to increment by 3 as it's
copied down:

=VLOOKUP(Date,Data,3*ROWS($1:2)-4)

--
HTH,

RD
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Please keep all correspondence within the Group, so all may benefit!
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"bpeltzer" wrote in message
...
You could incorporate the row function. If, for example, this began in
row
2, instead of the 2, enter =3*(row()-2)+2. In row 2 that evaluates to 2.
But copy it down to row 3 and it evaluates to 5, etc.

"Kia" wrote:

If I have =VLOOKUP(date,data,2) and in the next cell down I want
=VLOOKUP(date,data,5) so the col_index_num increments by 3 each time how
would I go about doing this so that it can be copied down instead of
editing
each line by hand?

Many Thanks in advance