Question

I have a column :

1 - name

3 - name


6 - name

and I would like to have another column show just the non empty cells like so:

1 - name
3 - name
6 - name

I am running this on OSX, so I can not use VBA. I also can not use data filter, since this column is to the right of actual data, and if I filter it, it would also hide relevant data.

Ultimately I am trying to get a column (any column) to only display non-empty cell values, one in each row, with auto updating capabilities.

At the suggestion below, I tried the following:
=INDEX(BRsat,SMALL((IF(LEN(BRsat),ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&ROWS(BRsat))))),ROW(L1)),1)‌
but it taxes the computational time to the extreme, lagging the computer clicks behind by over 15 secs once implemented once each on 7 different tabs.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Give this a shot, entered as an array formula with Ctrl+Shift+Enter):

Quickly paste-able version (note: you will need to change these references to those in your sheet – I used data in A1:A7 in mine [see image]):

=IFERROR(INDEX($A$1:$A$7, SMALL(--(IF($A$1:$A$7<>"",ROW($A$1:$A$7),100000)),ROW())), "")

Longer-form (to better see what is going on):

=IFERROR(
        INDEX(
              $A$1:$A$7,
              SMALL(
                  --(IF($A$1:$A$7<>"",ROW($A$1:$A$7),100000)),ROW())),
   "")

Basically, we use an index formula on the column. The row argument uses the SMALL() formula to find all instances where the column contains empty values, and then assigns an arbitrarily high number that hopefully won’t ever be matched (this may be bad practice 🙂 ). The k argument to SMALL() (the kth element in the array you want to match) is just the row number, meaning that as you go down the list, you won’t match items above the current one.