Change the shape of an outline in Excel - excel

Question

Am running Office Professional Plus 2013 on Windows 7.
Have a matrix as depicted in the following image:
Full matrix data is found in this Google spreadsheet. There are two tabs - generic terms and specific terms.
Matrix is used to classify items - such as specific plants. There are items assigned to this matrix, but they are not shown to reduce complexity.
The matrix is a normalized matrix, meaning that the columns are fixed - there is place in the matrix for all possible values. But in many cases there is no value (a NULL value) for a column. For example, the genus on row 8 is defined by kingdom : subkingdom : division : class : order : family : genus.
The columns subdivision, subclass, superorder, suborder and family are not used to define that specific genus. In contrast, the genus on row 14 is defined by subdivision.
Using symbols, the normalized matrix looks as follows:
The goal is create a de-normalized matrix - to reshape the matrix where a column no longer has a meaning, but is just a level in the outline. The general approach is to delete a NULL cell and - on the next line(s) - move its dependent "children" left.
The manual process would be:
Delete D5 and move Class left.
Delete E6 and move Order left.
Repeat ad nauseam.
The de-normalized matrix would look like this:
Fortunately, symbols in the first three columns are never NULL (C - constant) - we can reference them, but do not need to move them. But the position of a symbol in all other columns is variable (V - variable), depending on which nulls have been deleted.
There is one wrinkle. There are instances where an item (implied but not shown) is not mapped to genus. Instead, the item is mapped to a broader terms such as family. Row 15 is an example where family is the terminal node; genus is not used to define this item.
How to create an Excel formula or script that:
deletes a NULL position
on the row with the deleted NULL position, moves the term left
on the next row(s) that are related to the parent cell, move the term(s) to the left?
If it is easier to work with names (division, subdivision, class, etc.) than with symbols, that's OK. The Google spreadsheet provides the generic term and the specific term.

Answer 1

Here's a sample output of my formula based solution:
There are 2 helper columns (M, N).
Formula in M2 (calculates current item's position in row), fill the column with it:
=MATCH("*",A2:L2,0)
Formula in N2 (calculate new item's position in row), fill the column with it:
=IF(M2-M1>0,N1+1,IFERROR(LOOKUP(2,1/($M$1:M1=M2),$N$1:N1),M2))
Formula in O2 simply places the item in right column, fill entire range with it:
=IF($N2=O$1,INDEX($A2:$L2,1,$M2),"")
It takes some time to calculate all rows, but I think it produces the desired output.
EDIT:
I think I found a bug in my solution, the formula in N2 should be:
=IF(M2-M1>0,N1+1,LOOKUP(2,1/($M$1:M1<M2),$N$1:N1)+1)
I didn't notice it earlier, because it affects row 2468 (Amborellanae).