Data transformation when most rows are blank (filling in blank rows with data from a particular row) or manipulating the string

[sroberts]

My data is formatted in a weird way that’s hard to interpret. I’d like to put the “Trainee” on every single row, but this data only exists on one row. An example of my data is below, and below that is how I would like it to appear.

The only way I can think of doing this is by using the first letter of the first name and the full last name, but if there’s another way to pull directly from the Trainee column that would be better.

Either way, I’m fairly new to Knime and not sure how to do this transformation just yet. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

[TRAINEE] [LAST NAME] [FIRST NAME] [CLASS][STATUS]
GWASHINGTON | null | null | null | null |
null | Washington | George | Class 1 | IN PROCESS
null | Washington | George | Class 2 | IN PROCESS
null | Washington | George | Class 3 | IN PROCESS
null | Washington | George | Class 4 | IN PROCESS

KWEST | null | null | null | null |
null | West | Kanye | Class 1 | IN PROCESS
null | West | Kanye | Class 2 | IN PROCESS
null | West | Kanye | Class 3 | IN PROCESS
null | West | Kanye | Class 4 | IN PROCESS

---

GWASHINGTON | Washington | George | Class 1 | IN PROCESS
GWASHINGTON | Washington | George | Class 2 | IN PROCESS
GWASHINGTON | Washington | George | Class 3 | IN PROCESS
GWASHINGTON | Washington | George | Class 4 | IN PROCESS

KWEST | West | Kanye | Class 1 | IN PROCESS
KWEST | West | Kanye | Class 2 | IN PROCESS
KWEST | West | Kanye | Class 3 | IN PROCESS
KWEST | West | Kanye | Class 4 | IN PROCESS

[bruno29a]

Hi @sroberts , you can use the Missing Value node to do this:

Missing Value

It allows you to choose what value to use to replace the missing values. Among other options, it has the option to replace the missing values with the previous non-missing values. So any missing rows below GWASHINGTON will be replaced with GWASHINGTON and any missing rows below KWEST will be replaced by KWEST