Using the Flash Fill feature in Excel (by pressing the Ctrl+E keyboard combination)

In Excel, pressing "Control+E" activates the "Flash Fill" feature, which allows you to quickly fill in data based on a pattern you establish by providing a few examples, essentially automating repetitive data entry tasks by recognizing patterns in adjacent columns and applying them to the current column.

In this example I have a list of information that is not formatted or in the order I'd like to see it. I could manually add the data so it is displayed the way I want to see it, but you can save a lot of time by using the keyboard combination Control+E.

1 2 3 4 5 6 First Name Last Name Phone Full Name Email Phone John Smith 8884442222 John Smith John.Smith@gaudenzia.org (888) 444-2222 Karrie Jones 9994442222

Tracy Williams 7775554444

Suzie Que 2361118456

In the first example above I have manually typed in and formatted the data the way I'd like to see it in columns 4, 5 & 6. This provides an example for Excel to copy.

I select the cell below "John Smith" in the Full Name column and press the Ctrl+E keyboard combination.

John Smith 8884442222 John Smith John.Smith@gaudenzia.org (888) 444-2222 Karrie Jones 9994442222 Karrie Jones

Tracy Williams 7775554444 Tracy Williams

Suzie Que 2361118456 Suzie Que

This fills in the entire column with the data I want and in the format I'd like to see it. I'll go ahead and use the Ctrl+E combination in each of the columns below the example I've typed in the first row. As you can see from this simple example that it can save you a lot of time if you have an extended list of names, numbers or unformatted text.

1 2 3 4 5 6 John Smith 8884442222 John Smith John.Smith@gaudenzia.org (888) 444-2222 Karrie Jones 9994442222 Karrie Jones Karrie.Jones@gaudenzia.org (999) 444-2222 Tracy Williams 7775554444 Tracy Williams Tracy.Williams@gaudenzia.org (777) 555-4444 Suzie Que 2361118456 Suzie Que Suzie.Que@gaudenzia.org (236) 111-8456