SEQUENCE

The SEQUENCE function generates a given number of rows and columns that contain a list of sequenced counting.

With this function, we can create lists that count up or down at given intervals, but the default of the function is to count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on.

Let’s start by creating the simplest version of the function, and write =SEQUENCE and Left parenthesis.

The first argument is the number of rows we want, of which we want 10, and when we close the function, we get 10 rows of the default number sequence.

We go into the function and see that the second argument determines how many columns we will have, and for this we enter 5.

We now have an array of 10 rows and 5 columns, and we see that the numbers are counted to the right and resume on the next row.

We go back into the function and see that the third argument determines at which number we want to start, and for this we’ll try 10.

We’ll see that it’s the same sequence as before, but plus 10.

We can also change this number to -10 to start there instead.

We go back in and look at the fourth argument.

Here we determine the amount by which each subsequent value in the array will be increased.

If we leave this blank, as mentioned, it will default to 1, but we’ll try writing 3, and hit enter.

We see that each number now increases by three instead of one.

As a practical example, we can use SEQUENCE to write out the months of the year in a row.

For this we’ll need to use the TEXT function, so we enter =TEXT, left parenthesis.

As the first argument, we’ll start a DATE function, and as its first argument in it we start a YEAR function, which we decide should take in today’s date using the TODAY function.

For the second arguments in the DATE function, we’ll create a SEQUENCE function with 1 row and 12 columns, one for each month, and as the third argument we enter a one to start with January.

We’ll end the DATE function and enter the TEXT function’s second argument, where we enter “mmm” in quotation marks to specify the format we want to show the months in.

We’ll close the function and hit enter, and we now have a dynamically updated list of months, where the months shown will always be in the current year.