I know it's a long shot but does anyone use Google Refine?

[EmpressOfTheSevenOceans]

And if you do... I have an addresses spreadsheet where the addresses are all different lengths, so the postcodes are spread out over 3 different columns. I know it should be possible to move them all to one column but how? I can't merge because only one of the three columns is exclusively postcodes at the moment and I want the non-postcode stuff to stay where it is.

I've got as far as filtering the postcodes using \d\w\w but how do I move them?

TIA and

I don't use Google Refine, I do bulk data manipulation in MySQL or Excel.

I would probably just do it in the spreadsheet: use MATCH("ZZZZZ",B5:F5) to find the last non-blank column, then use IFs to select the appropriate column or blank as appropriate.

Presumably you can duplicate this in Refine - i.e. don't think about moving the postcodes, instead create a new column containing the postcodes and then delete the last non-blank entry in each row?

Thanks MrAnchovy, I'll try that.

Actually I probably wouldn't even do that - just sort on the last column, copy the postcodes over to the postcode column and delete them. Sort on the last-1 column, copy over and delete. Repeat.

Oops, vital detail missed...

Actually I probably wouldn't even do that - just sort on the last column, copy the postcodes over to the postcode column and delete them. Now sort the rows that haven't yet been fixed on the last-1 column, copy over and delete. Repeat.