AutoComplete in Excel

AutoComplete in Excel is a very useful feature for data entry. AutoComplete checks already existing text entries in the Column and completes the Active Cell with already existing text after you had typed the first letters.

Example - When you start typing in the Active Cell with first letter as "E", AutoComplete checks the Column for any other entry starting with the same letter "E". If there is only one Cell that has an entry starting with the same letter "E", AutoComplete will fill the Active Cell with already existing data, assuming that you want to re-type the existing data.

If there are more than one Cell starting with letter "E", then AutoComplete will wait until you type the second letter for uniqueness and fills the Active Cell with remaining letters. If there are more than one entry with same first two letters, Excel will wait until you type the third letter and so-on.

Refer below image. There is already a Cell with unique text "Ear". There is no other Cell contains data starting with "E". So, AutoComplete in Excel fills the remaining letters in the Active Cell after you had entered the first letter "E".

If there are more than one Cell in the Column starting with the same first letter, Excel AutoComplete will check for unique first two letters.

Refer below image. There are two Cells starting with the letter "T" in Column A, but the second letters in both Cells are different. So, AutoComplete filled the remaining letters in the Active Cell after you had typed the first two letters.

Note that if there is an empty Cell in the Column, Excel will check for AutoComplete only after the empty Cell. There are two entries starting with the letter "T" in below image; one is "Tongue" and the other is "Teeth". Since there is an empty Cell after "Tongue", AutoComplete didn’t consider the word "Tongue" and filled the Active Cell with the word "Teeth", when I had typed the first letter "T".