thank you! - the reply at the bottom worked like a charm!

and if I could impose another question connected to this....
I also have other criteria to consider in addition to what is stated below.
Here
are my conditions as stated in another formula:
if this is true "=AND($J$3=1,$I21=1,K$3="x")", then I would want to apply
the
formula below, and otherwise populate with a 0. There are actually 10 sets
of this criteria ("=AND($J$3=2,$I21=2,K$3="x")",
"=AND($J$3=3,$I21=3,K$3="x"), etc up to 10).

thoughts? Is there now a problem because my cells in columns A may not be
considered consecutive because they may now be broken up by 0's? Is there a
way to apply the criteria above, yet populate the set # of cells with the set
value even if they are not consecutive?
am I being clear? do you need more info to answer?
"Jane" wrote:

I need to populate a limited # of cells in a column with a set value.

Cell A1 contains the # of cells that should be populated down column
starting at A3.
Cell A2 contains the values that is to be populated.
Once the # of cells is populated, the cells below that shopuld be populated
with 0

any suggestions?
thank you in advance ! jane

Try this:
=(ROW()<=$A$1+2)*$A$2
And copy down as needed. OR
If the data is Text, try this:
=IF(ROW()<=$A$1+2,$A$2,0)
HTH,
RD