Calc: copying cells from left/above

[jeshkhol]

This may be embarrassingly easy to achieve or terribly complicated to do – I don’t know.

Cell contents in column A are sometimes text, sometimes empty, at irregular intervals. Only A1 and A2 are never empty :

In column B I need cell contents to be:

• the same as in column A if on the same row there is content in column A
• the same as above in column B if on the same row there is no content in column A

What formula do I need to put into cells B2 to B32 to achieve this?

Any help highly appreciated! columns.ods (11.3 KB)

[robleyd]

what should appear in B2 if A2 is empty?

[jeshkhol]

I’ve just edited my question to include this info – thanks!

[robleyd]

This is one possible solution: columns.ods (31.2 KB)

[Edit] So one doesn’t need to download the file, the accepted solution uses =IF(ISBLANK(A3);B2;A3) dragged down as necessary.

[jeshkhol]

Great, thank you.