I am sorry this did work. ignore my other reply please

thank you very much for your help

"Harlan Grove" wrote:

Gary Reger wrote...
data that i have is

a b c d
jh address telephone number
ar address telephone number
address telephone number

ar address telephone number

column a needs needs number 1,2,3,4,5, etc.
but only if column be is jh or ar
and they need to be consecutive like you use with autofill numbering
but it needs to skip the spaces and yet keep the numbering in order

If your topmost row is in row 1, so the topmost col A cell would be A1,
then try these formulas.

A1:
=IF(OR(B1={"jh","ar"}),1,"")

A2:
=IF(OR(B2={"jh","ar"}),1+MAX(A$1:A1),"")

Fill A2 down as far as needed.