Hello,

I am new to Excel. I need help assigning numbers to a group of names. I
have 2500 names to assign...don't really want to do it manually!

Example

# Name
100 John Smith
100 John Smith
100 John Smith
101 Adam Suken
101 Adam Suken
101 Adam Suken

and so on....

Thanks!

To assign numbers to a group of names using the "COUNTIF" function in Excel:

1. Make sure your data is organized in a table with headers. In your example, you have two columns: "Number" and "Name".
2. In the first cell under the "Number" column (cell A2 in your example), enter the number you want to assign to the first name.
3. In the second cell under the "Number" column (cell A3 in your example), enter the following formula:
   Formula:

   =IF(B3=B2,A2,A2+1) 

4. Press enter to apply the formula to the cell.
5. Click on the cell with the formula (cell A3 in your example) and drag the fill handle (the small square in the bottom right corner of the cell) down to the last row of your table.
6. Release the mouse button to apply the formula to all the cells in the "Number" column.
7. Your table should now have a unique number assigned to each name. If there are multiple instances of the same name, they will have the same number.

See
http://blog.contextures.com/archives...-excel-labels/

--
__________________________________
HTH

Bob

"Michelle" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I am new to Excel. I need help assigning numbers to a group of names. I
have 2500 names to assign...don't really want to do it manually!

Example

# Name
100 John Smith
100 John Smith
100 John Smith
101 Adam Suken
101 Adam Suken
101 Adam Suken

and so on....

Thanks!

See
http://blog.contextures.com/archives...-excel-labels/

--
__________________________________
HTH

Bob

"Michelle" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I am new to Excel. I need help assigning numbers to a group of names. I
have 2500 names to assign...don't really want to do it manually!

Example

# Name
100 John Smith
100 John Smith
100 John Smith
101 Adam Suken
101 Adam Suken
101 Adam Suken

and so on....

Thanks!

With names in column A, put the starting number in B1 and in B2 enter this
formula and pull down.

=IF(A2=A1,B1,B1+1)

You can then copy paste special values for the numbered column to get
rid of the formulas.

HTH
Regards,
Howard

"Michelle" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I am new to Excel. I need help assigning numbers to a group of names. I
have 2500 names to assign...don't really want to do it manually!

Example

# Name
100 John Smith
100 John Smith
100 John Smith
101 Adam Suken
101 Adam Suken
101 Adam Suken

and so on....

Thanks!

With names in column A, put the starting number in B1 and in B2 enter this
formula and pull down.

=IF(A2=A1,B1,B1+1)

You can then copy paste special values for the numbered column to get
rid of the formulas.

HTH
Regards,
Howard

"Michelle" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I am new to Excel. I need help assigning numbers to a group of names. I
have 2500 names to assign...don't really want to do it manually!

Example

# Name
100 John Smith
100 John Smith
100 John Smith
101 Adam Suken
101 Adam Suken
101 Adam Suken

and so on....

Thanks!