Split one column into two equal halves

Question

GOAL:

Split one column of items into two half-sized columns of items. So if there are originally 1 column by n rows I want two columns by (n ÷ 2) rows with exactly the same items as the 1 x n column.

PROBLEM:

I would like to split 1 column ( that contains vendor Invoice#'s ) into two rows. To clarify I don't want to split the contents of each cell in the column into two columns, I want to split the column itself in two.

• There could be 1 or zero items, In this case no splitting should occur.
• There could be any an even-number of items greater than 1 in the column. If the total number of items are even I would just like the column split evenly in two. I.e. if there are 18 items I want two columns of 9.
• There could be any odd-number of items greater than 2 in the column. If the total number of items of the column are odd I would like two have the column split almost evenly in two such that one of the two newly created columns has 1 more additional item than the other one.

EXAMPLE:

THIS: 101 102 103 104 105

BECOMES: 101 104 102 105 103

CONTEXT:

I have a huge google-sheet with lots of rows/records of jobs that were completed. I currently use a FILTER formula to filter out all the jobs such that it matches a persons name, & their expected pay-date, and it shows only those jobs. The purpose of this is to generate a check-statement.

Answer 1

Assuming the data is in column B, the following two formulas do the job. In cell C1:

=filter(B1:B, row(B1:B) < 1 + max(filter(row(B:B), len(B:B))) / 2)

In cell D1:

=filter(B1:B, row(B1:B) >= 1 + max(filter(row(B:B), len(B:B))) / 2)

Explanation:

1. Find the last row with data by max(filter(row(B:B), len(B:B)))
2. Divided by 2 and use as a threshold for splitting the column: rows above it go to column C, rows below it go to column D.