Fill blank cells in a Markdown table

Goal: Expand a Markdown table where a repeated value is left blank (“same as above”) so every row carries its value before you group or aggregate. This is the Markdown table version of Fill blank cells in a CSV column.

Prerequisites: The table module, via -A or nodes.

Query

$ mq -A 'import "table" | table::tables | first | table::forward_fill(["Region"])' stores.md

Input (`stores.md`)

| Region | Product | Owner |
| :----- | ------- | ----: |
| East   | apple   | Kim   |
|        | banana  |       |
| West   | apple   |       |
|        | banana  | Lee   |

Output

| Region | Product | Owner |
| :----- | ------- | ----: |
| East   | apple   |   Kim |
| East   | banana  |       |
| West   | apple   |       |
| West   | banana  |   Lee |

Each blank Region takes the last non-blank value above. The header, column alignment and every untouched cell are kept as they were.

Fill within a group, then fill what is left

table::forward_fill, table::backward_fill and table::constant_fill take the same arguments as their csv:: counterparts, with the table as the first argument. Once you pass more than the table itself, write self explicitly:

$ mq -A 'import "table" | table::tables | first | table::forward_fill(["Region"]) | table::forward_fill(self, ["Owner"], ["Region"]) | table::constant_fill(self, {"Owner": "unassigned"})' stores.md

| Region | Product |      Owner |
| :----- | ------- | ---------: |
| East   | apple   |        Kim |
| East   | banana  |        Kim |
| West   | apple   | unassigned |
| West   | banana  |        Lee |

Kim fills the East row but stops at the West boundary. The leftover blank then takes the constant.

Notes

Columns are header names, or column indexes (0-based). Use an index when two columns share the same header text.
A cell counts as blank when it is empty. Table cells are never missing, so the missing argument ("empty", "none" or "both") only changes anything if you pass "none", which fills nothing.
Given the same records and options, a table gives the same values as csv::forward_fill and friends, so you can switch between CSV and Markdown input without changing the fill options.
constant_fill converts the value to a string, so {"Owner": 0} writes 0.

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