In Excel, how to fill blank cells with the last preceding non-blank cell?

Question

How to fill blank cells with the last preceding non-blank cell ?

For example, I have this two-columns sheet:

A   
    abc
    dce
    fds
B   
    kj         


        

Answer 1

• In a "manual" fashion, you could do the following:

Select the column, go to Edit > Go To > Special > Blanks, type = in the formula bars, hit the up arrow then Ctrl+Enter. you should now have the cells fill with the values above

• In a more "automated" fashion using VBA, you could do the following:

Select the range where you want to fill the blank cells,

Then click on Developer Tab -> Visual Basic -> Insert -> Module

Then paste the code in the Module, and click on run:

Code:

 Sub Fill_Blank_Cells()
 Selection.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeBlanks).Select
 Selection.FormulaR1C1 = "=R[-1]C"
 End Sub

As @Jerry rightfully pointed out, make sure to copy-paste special the values in order to remove the formulas behind your filled column. This will prevent any undesirable results later!