The formulas in excel are not only for one cell or a couple of cells. It will be required to b applied to the whole column or a large range of cells in the column sometimes. Excel has different methods to do this. Here we will look at how to apply a formula to the entire column by double-clicking the autofill handle. This method is one of the easiest ways to apply a formula to an entire column.
Procedure To Apply Formula By Double-Clicking on the AutoFill Handle
Suppose there is a dataset to which the commission is to be calculated for each sales rep in Column C (where the commission would be 15% of the sale value in column B).
- Enter the formula “B2*15%” in cell A2.
- A small green square at the bottom-right part of the selection will be available.
- Place the cursor over the green square. You will notice that the cursor changes to a plus sign which is called the autofill handle
Double click on the left mouse key- It automatically fills the entire column till the cell where you have the data in the adjacent column.
There should not be any blank cells or data in the adjacent column. If there is a blank cell in the column the formula will be applied only till the blank column. The autofill handle is equivalent to copy-paste.