return value from Column B if above this row

[Guest]

This is probably simply for you guys but here goes:

In Column A I have customers, Column B is blank and Column C is color paint
sold.


A B C
Joe
Black
Red
Jane
Green
Blue
Black
Bob
Grey


For uploading into our system I need Column B to have the customer's name
beside every colour so I want to say:
In Column B, wherever there is data in Column C, return from Column A the
customer name above that row. I need it to look up only the closest name
above it.

Good golly I hope I explained that right.

 

[Ragdyer]

Copy Column A to Column B.
Then select the data in Column B, down to the same row number that has the
last color, then:

Hit <F5>
Click on "Special"
Click on "Blanks"
Then <OK>

Type the equal (= ) sign
Hit the UP ARROW
Hold down <Ctrl>, and hit <Enter>

 

[Guest]

In B1 enter:
=A1 this will pickup the first customer name
In B2 enter:
=IF(A2="",B1,A2) and copy down

 

[Guest]

This works for the most part except that I have blank rows (these change
every time I generate the spreadsheet) so it's not returning the value for
every cell that has a colour.

Any other ideas?

 

[Guest]

This worked for me, however, I need to make the spreadsheet so the user will
not have to do any copy/paste. I needs to return the value automatically or
there is too much chance for error.

I'm learning a lot today - thanks!