So it is worth noting that flash fill is case-sensitive and can be used to change casing of referenced values in the flash filled column.Īnother point to note is that flash fill works best when referencing values that have a consistent pattern of data entry. For example, if you had an adjacent cell with the value “Jon Doe” and then entered “doe” into the next column for the flash fill entry, all of the other flash-filled values would also use all lowercase last name entries. In this case, Excel will display a message box that informs you that it cannot find a pattern in the adjacent data.Īnother interesting point to note about using flash fill is that it references that casing of the entry that you make within the flash filled column and repeats your pattern when filling-in the remaining values. Basically, this means that you cannot have an empty or blank column between the column that is being flash filled and the column whose values are being referenced. Note that when using the flash fill feature, the data column that is referenced can be non-adjacent as long as there is contiguous column data between the column that is flash filled and the referenced column. Next, click into the next cell above or below the cell into which you entered the value, and then either press “Ctrl” + “E” on your keyboard or click the “Data” tab in the Ribbon and then click the “Flash Fill” button in the “Data Tools” button group.Įxcel should then extract all of the corresponding data values from the adjacent column to fill-in the cells within the current column. Then enter the data value to extract from the adjacent cell into the cell within the column that you want to flash fill. To flash fill a column of information c lick into a cell within a column that is next to, or contiguous to, the column that contains data you want to retrieve. In this post, we will discuss how to flash fill a column in Microsoft Excel 2013. This can greatly reduce your dependence on text-parsing formulas within Excel. For example, if you had a column that contained the first and last names of employees, you could enter the last name of an employee into the adjacent column and then use flash fill to fill-in the corresponding values of all of the last names of the employees within the column. This feature is most useful when dealing with data that has a consistent data entry pattern in the column whose values are referenced by the second, flash filled column. Starting in Excel 2013, you can use the “Flash Fill” feature to automatically fill-in values within a column with information entered into an adjacent column. QuickBooks Desktop (PC/Windows) 2022-2015Ĭlick here for the complete Excel training.Mac OS Ventura-Mojave Keyboard Shortcuts.

STEP 6: If the flash fill looks good, press Enter.

STEP 5: In the second entry, once you type the first letter W of Wright, Excel will auto-suggest to F lash Fill the rest of the Last Names. STEP 4: Type Simpsonas the first entry in the Last Name

STEP 3: If the flash fill looks good, press Enter. Just in case Flash Fill does not start automatically when you are expecting for it to match your pattern, you can start it manually by clicking Data > Flash Fill. STEP 2: In the second entry, once you type the first letter I for Ian, Excel will auto-suggest to Flash Fill the rest of the First Names. STEP 1: Type Homeras the first entry in the First Name To demonstrate the power of Excel’s Flash Fill, we will start off with this table of data we need to populate: If the Flash Fill does not work automatically, you need to activate in from Excel’s back end by going to:įile > Options > Advanced > Automatically Flash Fill

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