ROW Function in Excel: Row Number of a Cell

⏱ 1 min readUpdated 28 September 2026

LookupLevel: BeginnerAvailable in: Excel 2007+

In this article
  1. Syntax
  2. Examples
  3. Example 1
  4. Example 2
  5. Related functions

ROW returns the row number of a reference (or of the cell it is in). It is the quiet engine behind serial numbers and many array tricks.

Syntax

=ROW([reference])
Argument What it means
reference Optional cell; omitted = the formula’s own row.

Examples

Example 1

=ROW()-1

Serial numbers that stay correct when rows are sorted or deleted (header in row 1).

Example 2

=MOD(ROW(),2)=0

Conditional-formatting rule for banded rows.

ROWS · COLUMN · SEQUENCE

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