Thread: Increment with letters in front

I have been using excel for ever and I love to make tables. I know how to make a formula for a sequence of numbers, but I was wondering how I could make a formula for a sequence of numbers and letters. I want to make a table like this:
Serial# Product Stock Value Price
XXX000 Apples 15 $1 $2
XXX001 Bananas 15 $1 $3
etc.
XXY000 Pork 15 $1 $2
XXY001 Beef 15 $1 $1.50
etc.

I am trying to format the first column. The serial would have three letters and three numbers. I would start the "chain" by entering the first three random letters followed by 000 and then a formula to increment the numbers from there. And I could recycle the formula for my next set of three letters (if I could get a "-" between the letters and numbers that would be perfect ie XXX-000, but it would just be cosmetic so not necessary). I know there must be away to do this short of entering the serials manually.

Thank you for the help

edit: Thanks so much!

="xxx-"&TEXT(ROW(A1)-1,"000")

PHP Code: 

=Left(A4,3)&TExT(Right(A4,3)+1,"000") 


Can't you just enter the first value say XXY-000 then use the fill handle, (the small black square bottom right of the selected cell), to drag it down?

yes you can lol
how about
="AA"&CHAR(65+FLOOR((ROW(A1)-1)/1000,1))&TEXT((ROW(A1)-1)-(1000*FLOOR((ROW(A1)-1)/1000,1)),"000")
that will give from aaa000 down to aaz999
26000 unique coded ref