Create a drop-down list
To create a drop-down list in Excel, follow these steps.
1.On the second sheet, type the items you want to appear in the drop-down list.
Note: If you do not want users to access items on Sheet 2, you can hide Sheet 2. To do this, right-click the Sheet 2 tab and click Hide.
2.On the first sheet, select cell B1.
3.On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, click Data Validation.
The “Data Validation” dialog box appears.
4.Click in the Source box and select the range A1:A3 on Sheet2.
5.In the Allow box, click List.
6.Click OK.
Result :
Note: To copy/paste a drop-down list, select the cell containing the drop-down list and press CTRL + c, select another cell and press CTRL + v.
7.You can also enter items directly in the Source box, instead of using a range reference.
Note: The drop-down list is case sensitive. For example, if a user types yes, an error alert is displayed.
Allow other entries
You can also create a drop-down list in Excel that allows other entries.
1. First, if you type a value that is not in the list, Excel displays an error alert.
To allow other entries, follow these steps.
2.On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, click Data Validation.
The “Data Validation” dialog box appears.
3.In the Error Alert tab, uncheck the box “Show an error alert after invalid data entry”.
4.Click OK.
5.You can now enter a value that is not in the list.
Add/remove items
You can add or remove items from a drop-down list in Excel without having to open the “Data Validation” dialog box and change the range reference. This saves time.
1. To add an item to a drop-down list, navigate to Items and select an item.
2. Right-click, and then click Insert.
3. Select “Shift Cells Down” and click OK.
Result:
Note: Excel automatically changed the range reference from Sheet2!$A$1:$A$3 to Sheet2!$A$1:$A$4. You can check this by opening the “Data Validation” dialog box.
4. Enter a new item.
Result:
5. To remove an item from a drop-down list, in step 2, click Delete, select “Caps Up” and click OK.
Dynamic drop-down list
You can also use a formula that updates your drop-down list automatically when you add an item to the end of the list.
1. On the first sheet, select cell B1.
2. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, click Data Validation.
The “Data Validation” dialog box appears.
3. Click the Source box and enter the formula:
=OFFSET(Sheet2!$A$1,0,0,COUNTA(Sheet2!$A:$A),1)
4. In the Allow box, click List.
Explanation: OFFSET function takes 5 arguments. Reference: Sheet2!$A$1, rows to offset: 0, columns to offset: 0, height: COUNTA(Sheet2!$A:$A) and width: 1: COUNTA(Sheet2!$A:$A) and width: 1. COUNTA(Sheet2!$A:$A) counts the number of values in column A of Sheet2 that are not empty. When you add an item to Sheet2’s list, COUNTA(Sheet2!$A:$A) increases. Therefore, the range returned by the OFFSET function expands and the drop-down list is updated.
5. Click OK.
6. On the second sheet, simply add a new item at the end of the list.
Result:
Delete a drop-down list
To delete a drop-down list in Excel, follow these steps.
1. Select the cell containing the drop-down list.
2. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, click Data Validation.
The “Data Validation” dialog box appears.
3. Click Clear All.
Note: To remove all other drop-down lists with the same settings, check the “Apply these changes to all other cells with the same settings” box before clicking Clear All.
4. Click OK.
Dependent drop-down lists
Want to learn more about drop-down lists in Excel? Learn how to create dependent drop-down lists.
1. For example, if the user selects Pizza from a first drop-down list.
2. A second drop-down list contains Pizza items.
3. But if user selects Chinese in the first dropdown, the second dropdown contains Chinese dishes.
The magic of the painting
You can also store your items in an Excel table to create a dynamic drop-down list.
1. On the second sheet, select an item from the list.
2. On the Insert tab, in the Tables group, click Table.
3. Excel automatically selects the data for you. Click OK.
4. If you select the list, Excel displays the structured reference.
5. Use this structured reference to create a dynamic drop-down list.
Explanation: Excel’s INDIRECT function converts a text string into a valid reference.
6. On the second sheet, simply add a new item at the end of the list.
Result:
Note: Try it yourself. Download the Excel file and create this drop-down list.
7. When using tables, use the UNIQUE function in Excel 365/2021 to extract unique items from the list.
Note: This dynamic table function, entered in cell F1, fills multiple cells. Wow ! This behavior in Excel 365/2021 is called padding.
8. Use this spill range to create a magic dropdown.
Explanation: Always use the first cell (F1) and a hash character to refer to a spill range.
Result :
