00:00Someone recently asked me, is Flash Fill and Auto Fill exactly the same?
00:04The answer is, no, they are not.
00:06Flash Fill automatically fills the value based on pattern it identifies in your data.
00:10Let me show you what I mean by this.
00:12Consider this blue table here with first name and last name,
00:15and I'm trying to create a full name by concatenating the first name and the last name like that.
00:19What you do is you type the first name, followed by last name,
00:23and after that, select the cell that you just entered,
00:25right-click on this handle, and drag it to the very last row like this.
00:29And from the context menu, you select Flash Fill.
00:32What it does is that it automatically combines the first name and the last name without the need of a formula.
00:38Let's look at the two names.
00:40If you're trying to split two names into first name and last name like this, like Coffee Mug,
00:45you'd enter the first name or rather word, and then enter the word Mug like that,
00:51and you press Control-E right below Coffee, it'll automatically fill out for you.
00:56And then under the last word on this coffee mug, you press Control-E,
01:01and you automatically fill up the last word for you based on what you have just entered.
01:06It identifies the pattern of your data and fills up the rest of the data for you.
01:11On the flip side, Autofill populates a series or fills up a range of cell based on specific pattern or sequences.
01:19Let me explain.
01:20You have one and two.
01:22The next number is obviously three.
01:24So if you select the two numbers like this on this handler, left-click and you drag,
01:29it naturally adds the number together and gives you a sequence of number.
01:33Likewise, in January of the month, hold this left-click on this and drag it all the way down.
01:39It automatically fills up for you.
01:40This is what Autofill does.
01:41And the day of the week, same thing.
01:44And even dates, you left-click on this handler here, and it'll fill up nicely for you.
01:50But for words, it looks for repetition, a series of repetition.
01:55Like say you have math signs, the next one is math signs.
01:59It goes like that.
02:00But if you have a single word like this,
02:02it's going to repeat the same word multiple times when you drag like that.
02:06So if you have a single word like this, it's going to be a single word like this.
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