Filling in a column
Filling in a column
(OP)
I received a spreadsheet that has data from numerous motors. The motor ID is in 1 cell in column C. There are anywhere between 6 and 20 rows of data associated with the motor ID. I would like to fill in the blank cells in column C as shown below (Current versus Desired). How can I do this without copying and pasting one section at a time?
Current:
Motor 1 Data
blank Data
blank Data
Motor 2 Data
blank Data
etc
Desired:
Motor 1 Data
Motor 1 Data
Motor 1 Data
Motor 2 Data
Motor 2 Data
Current:
Motor 1 Data
blank Data
blank Data
Motor 2 Data
blank Data
etc
Desired:
Motor 1 Data
Motor 1 Data
Motor 1 Data
Motor 2 Data
Motor 2 Data





RE: Filling in a column
RE: Filling in a column
RE: Filling in a column
B C
1 Motor1 Motor1
2 blank blank
3 blank blank
4 blank blank
5 Motor2 Motor2
6 blank blank
7 blank blank
8 blank blank
9 Motor3 Motor3
I entered the following formula in B2, '=IF(C2="",B1,C2)',
which corresponds to, if C2 is blank, copy the data from B1. If C2 insn't blank, leave it alone. I copied the formula to the rest of column B, and then copied/paste special (value) to column C. Then I deleted column B.
Easier to do than to type.
RE: Filling in a column
The only caveat is that if you only have 1 cell filled with data, Excel will try to guess what you want to autofill the remaining cells with, and I believe it defaults to incrementing. The way around this is to have 2 sequential cells with the same value, select both cells, and then double click the lower right portion of the cell.
Hope that helps!
RE: Filling in a column