In this article you'll learn a trick to select all empty cells in an Excel spreadsheet at once and fill in blanks with value above / below, with zero or any other value.
To fill or not to fill? This question often touches blank cells in Excel tables. On the one hand, your table looks neater and more readable when you don't clutter it up with repeating values. On the other hand, Excel empty cells can get you into trouble when you sort, filter the data or create a pivot table. In this case you need to fill in all the blanks. There are different methods to solve this problem. I will show you one quick and one VERY quick way to fill empty cells with different values in Excel 2010 and 2013.
Thus my answer is "To Fill". And now let's see how to do it.
How to select empty cells in Excel worksheets
Before filling in blanks in Excel, you need to select them. If you have a large table with dozens of blank blocks scattered throughout the table, it will take you ages to do it manually. Here is a quick trick for selecting empty cells.
- Pick the columns or rows where you want to fill in blanks.
- Press Ctrl + G or F5 to display the Go To dialog box.
- Click on the Special button.
Note. If you happen to forget the keyboard shortcuts, go to the Editing group on the HOME tab and choose the Go To Special command from the Find & Select drop-down menu. The same dialog window will appear on the screen.
The Go To Special command allows you to select certain types of cells such as ones containing formulas, comments, constants, blanks and so on.
- Select the Blanks radio button and click OK.
Now only the empty cells from the selected range are highlighted and ready for the next step.
Excel formula to fill in blank cells with value above / below
After you select the empty cells in your table, you can fill them with the value from the cell above or below or insert specific content.
If you're going to fill blanks with the value from the first populated cell above or below, you need to enter a very simple formula into one of the empty cells. Then just copy it across all other blank cells. Go ahead and read below how to do it.
- Leave all the unfilled cells selected.
- Press F2 or just place the cursor in the Formula bar to start entering the formula in the active cell.
As you can see in the screenshot above, the active cell is C4.
- Enter the equal sign (=).
- Point to the cell above or below with the up or down arrow key or just click on it.
The formula
(=C3)shows that cell C4 will get the value from cell C3. - Press Ctrl + Enter to copy the formula to all the selected cells.
Here you are! Now each selected cell has a reference to the cell over it.
Use the Fill Blank Cells add-in by Ablebits
If you don't want to deal with formulas every time you fill in blanks with cell above or below, you can use a very helpful add-in for Excel created by Ablebits developers. The Fill Blank Cells utility automatically copies the value from the first populated cell downwards or upwards. Keep on reading and find out how it works.
- Download the add-in and install it on your computer.
After the installation the new Ablebits Utilities tab appears in your Excel.
- Select the range in your table where you need to fill empty cells.
- Click the Fill Blank Cells icon on the Ablebits Utilities tab.
The add-in window displays on the screen with all the selected columns checked.
- Uncheck the columns that don't have empty cells.
- Select the action from the drop-down list in the bottom-right corner of the window.
If you want to fill the blanks with the value from the cell above, choose the Fill cells downwards option. If you want to copy the content from the cell below, then select Fill cells upwards.
- Press Fill.
Done! :)
Besides filling empty cells, this tool will also split merged cells if there are any in your worksheet and indicate table headers.
Check it out! Download the fully-functional trial version of the Fill Blank Cells add-in and see how it can save you much time and effort.
Fill empty cells with 0 or another specific value
What if you need to fill all the blanks in your table with zero, or any other number or a specific text? Here are two ways to solve this problem.
Method 1
- Select the empty cells.
- Press F2 to enter a value in the active cell.
- Type in the number or text you want.
- Press Ctrl + Enter.
A few seconds and you have all the empty cells filled with the value you entered.
Method 2
- Select the range with empty cells.
- Press Ctrl + H to display the Find & Replace dialog box.
- Move to the Replace tab in the dialog.
- Leave the Find what field blank and enter the necessary value in the Replace with text box.
- Click Replace All.
It will automatically fill in the blank cells with the value you entered in the Replace with text box.
Whichever way you choose, it will take you a minute to complete your Excel table.
Now you know the tricks for filling in blanks with different values in Excel 2013. I am sure it will be no sweat for you to do it using a simple formula, Excel's Find & Replace feature or user-friendly Ablebits add-in.
You're goddess. Thank you very much!
Markus
thanks
very nice..thank you
how can I fill the missing data of a row with the avarage of that row?
you're a genius thaaaanks
Thanks a lot
Thank you Sweety! :)
You just made my day!!
Now I can fill all those blank cells and make the Pivot Table work with "sum" instead of "count" which is so annoying when working with large files...
Thank you so much!
When I do this method of the '=b2' it simply enters b2 all the way down. What did I do wrong?
Hi,
I know its a bit late after the fact but the issue is your column must be in 'text' format, same thing happened to me I changed it to 'General' and the above steps worked correctly.
You must be directly entering the command by "Enter" command, make sure you are using "Cntrl+Enter" at the same time, your issue will be solved
I press f2 on my mac when trying to replace the empty numbers with zeros and it only leads me to brighten my screen.
Hello Maria,
Most likely you need to press the fn key at the same time, i.e. use the keyboard combination fn + F2.
I understand Good
thank you so much you made my day
Thank you so much. Fantastic.
This worked, thanks!
The Best Option...
Find and Replace. Genius shortcut for what I needed. Thanks
It's the perfect one what im finding for and got it. Thanks
Thanks a lot you made my day
This was a huge help! Thank you!
Thank you very much. You just saved me many hours
i need formula
2.254+152.00
plz mere ko point ke above wali value ko hatane ka formula chayiye
You are amazing man.
You don't know that you have saved my 3 days of work and I have done that work in 5 minutes. Great job man.. God bless you.
:-)
Has anyone ran into the issues of hitting "crtl enter" and it doe not autofill the cells? I have ran this exact formula before but today it is not working?
Thank you very very much.
you are my hero! ..... thaaaaaaaanks
this is great, but how we can apply for date , i got below type answer, kindly solve
06/04/2015
06/04/2015
06/04/2015
42100
06/04/2015
42100
06/04/2015
42100
06/04/2015
42100
06/04/2015
42100
06/04/2015
06/04/2015
07/04/2015
42101
07/04/2015
07/04/2015
42101
07/04/2015
07/04/2015
@ashwith
It looks like all the cells are not in the DATE format. Format the required cells/column/row as DATE and select the required format on the drop down menu. If leading zeros are required in the date, you can FORMAT CELLS>NUMBERS>CUSTOM, then input dd/mm/yyyy (or mm/dd/yyyy)under "Type:"
How do I fill up?
Thanks... It saved me lot of time
Hi,
Excel formula to fill in blank cells with value above / below.
Doing the steps referring with the value above is working. However, if I do the same with value below it is not working. Can anyone help? I want the below value to be copied on the above blank cells.
Thanks in Advance.
Thank you so much!
Very helpful very good much help ful love it
Love it helps in studies and information gave me confidence for test
Thank for such valueable post
copy cells with values just above it in column with blanks and muliptle values in between
smith
jone
daid
how to fill blank cells with combined numerical and letters ex(kiran123 bellow rows
Big help! Thanks a lot! Hope you continue do this kind of tutorial. Saves lot of time ^_^
I had around 70,000 rows and honestly this saved my time. Thank you so much.
Speechless!..thanks so much!
Thanks a lot. It saved lot of work
This is extremely helpful!
THANKS ALOT. YOU ARE GREATE .
In 2017, and this article just saved me a lot of time. Big thanks !
Hello Thanks a lot for the great trick to fill in blank cells..
But unfortunately, for few set of data i dint get the blanks filled even after following same procedure.. It says "no cells were found".
I have tried this on some other set of data and it works.. So i am confused.
Both the data are numbers!
Please help me find a way out.
This is superb! It has saved me a crazy amount of work, but my only question is it possible to use this feature directly with blank cells actually containing a formula? E.g. IF statement, when the condition is false, returns "" meaning technically a blank cell? Thanks for your help =)
Thank You lot, i got what expected exactly
thank you
Thanks, easy instructions to follow - great help.
Thank you . Such a useful and helpful piece. it solved my problems
This is awesome trick... thanks a lot u saved my day
This is excellent!
Thanks Ablebits for this most valuable contribution and make our work-life easier!!
I Raied So Much Times But Results Is Zero But Here Am Vewing This Site I Slove Simple Method I Slove It Thanks A Lot.................................
If I am have entry in below format:
DLM0509 5
DLS0074 4
DLS1491 3
DLA4254 1
DLS1483 7
DLA3341 3
So can I get these entries in below manner:
DLM0509
DLM0509
DLM0509
DLM0509
DLM0509
DLS0074
DLS0074
DLS0074
DLS0074
DLS1491
DLS1491
DLS1491
DLA4254
DLS1483
DLS1483
DLS1483
DLS1483
DLS1483
DLS1483
DLS1483
DLA3341
Please help!!
If I am have entry in below format:
DLM0509 5
DLS0074 4
DLS1491 3
DLA4254 1
DLS1483 7
DLA3341 3
Is there is any direct formula to get the entries in below manner:
DLM0509
DLM0509
DLM0509
DLM0509
DLM0509
DLS0074
DLS0074
DLS0074
DLS0074
DLS1491
DLS1491
DLS1491
DLA4254
DLS1483
DLS1483
DLS1483
DLS1483
DLS1483
DLS1483
DLS1483
DLA3341
DLA3341
DLA3341
Hello, Udayan,
I'm afraid there is no way to get the result you need using a formula. You'd better use a macro. I'm sorry, we can't help you with this, please try to find the solution in VBA sections on mrexcel.com or excelforum.com.
Thanks for the fantastic tip
Thnks somuch you are so good
Thanks a lot..
Are you kidding with this?
Even in the 2010 and 2013 versions(this article written in 2014) the Get & Transform Add-In was available. Thankfully, it is now a native feature in 2016.
Go to the Data Tab
Click on From Table
Highlight your column in the visual editor
Right click the header
Fill - > Down
That's it.
You need to delete this article. This was a poor workaround back then. Stop using this program in the same ways you were back in 2003.
Thanks
You saved me a lot of time, Thank you so much!
Thank you so much, you wont believe how complicated other sites have made this, I didnt even know there was such a simple way to do this. You've made my day! Thanks so much!
I understood the solutions above very much. But Please tell me any method to fill a cell with 0(zero) only if the cell above is a non-blank cell (even if i have multiple cell below the non-blank cell, i want to fill only one cell below the non-blank cell
Kudos for this post, excellent work
Thanks. This information is very informative.
Just to say thank you. Appreciated!!
i tried this but it didn't work.. instead of filling with the above cell, I want it to fill with the below cell.. and the total number of blank cells in between is not the same.. does this only work when the blank cells in between is the same amount? I.e. for the example above, the blank cells under Box and Envelope is the same..
Thanks. This information is very informative.
This is what I need. Thanks
Thanks A lot for this tutorial. This is exactly the same what I was looking for. Thanks
Thank you.Just what I needed
This made my life simple . enormous time is saved .
This made my life simple . enormous time is saved .
thank you!!!
You have saved me a lot of trouble. Thank you.
Thanks for this...I have an issue though with line breaks. I have a spreadsheet of data that is filtered so for example, lines 10-15 might be hidden from my desired results - I want an 'N' in every cell from 8 down, but as cells 10-15 default to a '0', making everything after call 15 also a '0' - can page/line breaks be discounted?
I would usually Ctrl,Shift and arrow down to highlight all blank cells I need an 'N' in but I have many breaks with the document being over 40000 lines big.
Thanks!