i want to write a formula that when copied will increment the cell pointer by
something other 1.

example
column A contains the numbers 1 in A1 and 2 in A2 and 3 in A3 and so on. in
B1 i want the formula (=A1) in B2 i want the formula (=A3) in B3 i want the
formula (=A5) and so on.

the example tries to compress the data from column A into column B by only
extracting the odd cell numbers. i currently know no way to increment the
cell pointer number by anything other than 1.

i know this is not proper syntax but maybe this makes sense as a fictional
example.

column A still has my numbers 1,2,3,4.... etc
in B1 i have this formula [=a(1+2)]
when i copy this formula into B2 it would then point to A3 instead of A2.
from then on the cells would always point to every odd row. i also dont want
to stop at just a +2 increment but would like to increment the pointing cell
by any value.