Question

I have a column like the following:

1 red
2 blue
3 red
4 
5 blue
6
7
8 white

The blanks refer to the record above it. So #4 would be associated with red
and 6 and 7 would be blue.

Is there an easy way to fill in the blanks for entire column?

Answer 1

• Select A1:A8.
• Press F5 to show the Goto dialog.
• Click Special ….. Select Blanks and click OK.

That will select a noncontiguous range of blank cells.

• Then, without selecting anything else, type =A3 and press control+enter.
• That will enter an array formula in all the blank cells referring to the cell above it.
• Reselect A1:A8, and Edit – Copy.
• Then Edit – Paste Special – Values. And you’re all set.

Note that the =A3 refers to the cell above the first blank cell.

If you want to do it with a macro, you could loop through the cells and fill in the empty ones.

Public Sub FillBlanks()

    Dim rColumn As Range
    Dim rCell As Range

    If TypeName(Selection) = "Range" Then
        For Each rColumn In Selection.Columns
            For Each rCell In rColumn.Cells
                If rCell.Row > rColumn.Cells(1).Row Then
                    If IsEmpty(rCell.Value) Then
                        rCell.Value = rCell.Offset(-1).Value
                    End If
                End If
            Next rCell
        Next rColumn
    End If
End Sub