Need Excel 2k to auto-number using a prefix of my choosing

[johnwc]

Hi Mr. Excel Community,

I am working on a spreadsheet to track the results of manual software testing. Each spreadsheet contains many test cases, and each test case has a unique ID. The test case ID is used by formulas in the spreadsheet to generate statistical information. I would like to automate the generation of the test case ID to prevent problems with the statistics if a user forgets to enter the test case ID. Each ID has a prefix followed by a sequential number (e.g., BS-001). The prefix is the same for all test case IDs in a particular spreadsheet.

I want Excel to do the following:
1) Automatically generate a test case ID (D8), consisting of a prefix of any length and a 3 digit sufficx (i.e., 001 for D8) separated with a '-', when a user makes an entry in G8.
2) Prompt the user to input the prefix for the test case ID (i.e., "BS" from the example above), or use the prefix entered by the user in D8 for subsequent cells (e.g., D9, D10, D11, etc.).

In summary, I want Excel to automatically generate my test case IDs, using a user-defined prefix and standard three digit suffix, after a user makes an entry in an adjacent cell. The ID will look something like this for the first test case in a spreadsheet: "BS-001". Subsequent IDs would be BS-002, BS-003, etc.

Thank you in advance for any help you can lend.

Version: Excel 2000
OS: Windows XP Pro

 

[johnwc]

I was able to figure out some basic code for what I need to accomplish here, and started a new thread to discuss it: http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1754152#post1754152.

Oops, I realized just now I probably should have continued in this thread. Sorry my bad - I'm new to this.