Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Generating Unique, Sequential Names.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 20, 2018)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
Steven is testing some software and he needs to feed into the program a bunch of "fake" names. He would like these names to be patterned such as Nameaaa, Nameaab, Nameaac, and so on through Namezzz. This would require creating 17,576 names (26 x 26 x 26). He wonders if there is an easy way to generate all these names in Excel.
This sort of repetitive task just cries out for a macro. (They are great for doing boring, dull, repetitive tasks that you don't want to do manually.) Here is a simple macro that can do the required grunt work:
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here:
Sub CreateNames()
Dim i As Integer
Dim x As Integer
Dim y As Integer
Dim z As Integer
i = 1
For x = 97 To 122
For y = 97 To 122
For z = 97 To 122
Cells(i, 1) = "Name" & Chr(x) _
& Chr(y) & Chr(z)
i = i + 1
Next
Next
Next
End Sub
The macro uses three counter variables (x, y, and z) to serve as "counter variables" that control which letter of the alphabet is appended to the "name" stuffed into a cell. Notice that the For ... Next loops range from 97 to 122, which are the ASCII codes for lowercase a through z.
If you don't want to use a macro for some reason, type the following formula into cell A1 of a blank worksheet:
="Name" & CHAR((ROW()-1)/676+97)&CHAR(MOD( (ROW()-1)/26,26)+97)&CHAR(MOD(ROW()-1,26)+97)
This is a single formula, and it results in "Nameaaa" being displayed. Copy the formula down through row 17,576 and you'll have your fake names.
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12128) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Generating Unique, Sequential Names.
Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!
VBA is a versatile programming language. It is especially good at working with string data. Here are the different VBA ...
Discover MoreNeed to know the current hour of the day? You can derive the information in your macros by using the Hour function, as ...
Discover MoreYou can create macros that run whenever Excel detects a certain event happening within an entire workbook. This tip ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2018-10-20 11:27:56
Rick Rothstein
Actually, since we are working with fixed ranges, we can use the square bracket shorthand notation for the Evaluate function and shorten up that code line slightly...
'========START CODE========
Sub CreateNames()
Range("A1:A17576") = [IF({1},"Name"&CHAR((ROW(A1:A17576)-1)/676+97)&CHAR(MOD((ROW(A1:A17576)-1)/26,26)+97)&CHAR(MOD(ROW(A1:A17576)-1,26)+97))]
End Sub'========END CODE========
2018-10-20 11:22:30
Rick Rothstein
Since you know of a formula that will work, why not use it in the macro and eliminate all of that looping? The following one-liner (albeit a rather long one) macro will produce the same output as your macro does...
'========START CODE========
Sub CreateNames()
Range("A1:A17576") = Evaluate("IF({1},""Name""&CHAR((ROW(A1:A17576)-1)/676+97)&CHAR(MOD((ROW(A1:A17576)-1)/26,26)+97)&CHAR(MOD(ROW(A1:A17576)-1,26)+97))")
End Sub
'========END CODE========
Note: If you only want to create a partial list, say 5000 names instead of the entire list of 17576 total names, simply change the range you are assigning to from Range(*A1:A17576") to Range("A1:A5000")... nothing else has to change.
Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments