Replacing banks with the value above

[smg3141]

Hello all!

I have a list of names where many values are blank. I would like to replace those blanks with the name above it. I tried using

if name = "" then name = lag(name);

 but I've since learned lag does not work well with conditionals. Thank you for any feedback!

Have	Want
Name 1	Name 1
Name 2	Name 2
	Name 2
	Name 2
	Name 2
	Name 2
	Name 2
	Name 2
Name 3	Name 3
	Name 3
	Name 3
	Name 3
Name 4	Name 4
	Name 4
	Name 4
	Name 4

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

data want;
set have;
retain _name;
if name ne ""
then _name = name;
else name = _name;
drop _name;
run;

[smg3141]

You are a hero. Thank you!