How to fill blank cells

Welcome back to my new series: Go To Special’s Hidden Treasures. If you missed part one of the series where I discussed how to delete blank rows, make sure to check it out! This week in the series: how to fill blank cells within a data table.

Before summarizing data with a pivot table, it’s extremely important to make sure your data is prepped and formatted correctly. If there are any blank cells within your data, the pivot table will calculate incorrect results.

First, select the data table, open Go To Special by pressing CTRL+G, then hit the Special button. Next, select “Blanks” and hit OK to select all of the blank cells within the data table. Now, the trick is to set them equal to the cell above. To do that, type “=” and select the cell above that. Then press CTRL+ENTER to apply the formula to the selected cells.

And there you go! Pivot table prep just got a whole lot easier thanks to Go To Special. Make sure to tune in next time for part three.

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Emma is the founder of Excel Dictionary, your ultimate source for impactful, digestible Excel tips and tricks.  After graduating from The Ohio State University in 2019 with a degree in Actuarial Science, Emma began her professional career as an actuary, just in time for COVID to hit.  New to the industry, new to the company, adjusting to a new WFH environment, and new to Excel, Emma quickly realized how overwhelming those Excel projects could be and didn’t know where to turn for help – so she taught herself.

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