Need help with Excel: Paste column data to another w/o overwriting existing cell data

[jesuis_danny]

Hey all, I'm back here hoping someone can help me. I've been tinkering with macros the last few days and have made some great progress. This is the last problem I have, thanks to the genius of others.

Problem

Column L has some data in it that I need to paste into Column J without overwriting any existing data already present.

My Best Guess

I thought I could use the Go To Special function and select only the cells with blanks, then just paste Column L right into the Column J, but I haven't been able to get this working yet.

Why?

I'm doing a data export from a CMS that has very limited output on how the data is outputted. For the sake of data preservation and accuracy, I need to output it into a clean format that's readable by peers.

 

[Binky]

You could just run a new column and do it the old fashioned way.

Run a new column somewhere (anywhere really), and put this formula:
=if(J3="","",J3&" "&L3)

In english, if J3 is blank then enter nothing, if J3 isnt blank, combine the data from J3 and L3.

That will make a new cell combining the data from both cells, with a space in the middle. Copy this formula down as far as needed. To make it permanent, just copy the column then past-special-values right over the top of itself.

 

[postmark]

I think you'd actually want this:

=CONCATENATE(J1," ",L1)

That way you don't lose any data either way. You would get a new column that has the data from J followed by a space, and then whatever is in L1. If you wanted to clean it up so you don't risk having a space in front of the L1 data if the J column is empty you could do this:

=TRIM(CONCATENATE(J1," ",L1))

Actually I'm confused as to what you really want. If you want it so that you will only paste in the new value if J is empty, then do this:

=if(J1="",L1,J1)

 

[corkyg]

If you Google "Merge Excel Data" you will see several possible solutions. What I understand is, you want to merge data from one cell or spreadsheet to another.

 

[GrumpyMan]

Get ASAP utilities, it's free for home and student use. Bunch of macros combined into 1 addon that does everything such as Concatenation. Can't do without it at work.