Autofill blank cells

[tuganne1]

Hi,
I have a column of names with some spaces e.g. A1: BROWN, A2:empty, A3:empty, A4:SMITH, A5: empty, A6:JONES etc. All the empty cells have the same name as the one above i.e. A2 and A3 should also read "BROWN". A5 should read "SMITH" and so on down the column. Is there away to create a formula that does this automatically. I've tried a simple if command in a duplicate column which looks at the first column and tests for a blank - if it finds one it enters the name from the cell above - but this only works once and some of the empty spaces need to be filled more than once e.g. A2 & A3 above.
Hope I've made myself clear.
any help greatly appreciated

[Paul]

Hi Tuganne,

If your values are in A1:A20, then in B1 put the formula

=A1

Then in B2, put the formula

=IF(A2="",B1,A2)

Fill that down to B20 and you should have your new list.

[tuganne1]

simple. many thanks