Unmerge grouped spreadsheet cells and fill down parent values into empty child rows

Merged cells in Microsoft Excel look visually appealing in printed executive reports, but they are catastrophic for data analysis. When a manager merges five rows under the label 'Marketing', Excel places the text 'Marketing' into the very first cell and leaves the remaining four cells completely empty. When this spreadsheet is saved as a CSV or imported into a database, Python pandas, or a BI tool, rows 2 through 5 show a blank value (NULL or empty string) for the department column. Filtering for 'Marketing' will only return the first employee, completely hiding the other four team members. Sorting the table scatters the empty rows across the dataset, destroying the relational hierarchy forever. DataFix repairs merged cell exports by applying an intelligent fill-down algorithm. It scans down the designated column; whenever it encounters a non-empty parent value, it records it, and immediately propagates that value downward into all subsequent blank cells until the next distinct category is reached. This restores tidy, rectangular data geometry ready for pivot tables and SQL queries.

What is the difference between this and Fill Down Blank Cells?

This tool is identical in behaviour to Fill Down. The name 'Unmerge & Fill' describes the Excel context that typically creates the blank rows.

Can I unmerge cells in an .xlsx file directly?

Not yet. Export to CSV first.

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