Repeat value between two values in a column

Question

I'm trying to repeat the first specific non-empty value in a column till the next specific non-empty value in the same column. How do I do that?

The data looks like this:

ID | Msg  
---+-----
 1 |     
 2 |  
 3 |  
 4 |  
 5 | Beg  
 6 | End  
 7 |  
 8 | Beg  
 9 |  
10 |   
11 |  
12 | End

It should be like this:

ID | Msg  
---+-----
 1 |     
 2 |  
 3 |  
 4 |  
 5 | Beg  
 6 | End  
 7 |  
 8 | Beg    
 9 | Beg   
10 | Beg    
11 | Beg  
12 | End

I looked into LAG() and LEAD() but I keep thinking that I would have to use a CURSOR for it. I just know about those but have not yet used them in such a case.

Answer 1

Just another option using a Flag and a sum() over

Example

Select ID
      ,Msg = case when sum( case when [Msg]='Beg' then  1 when [Msg]='End' then -1  else 0 end ) over (order by ID) = 1 and Msg='' then 'Beg' else Msg end
 From  YourTable

Returns

ID  Msg
1   
2   
3   
4   
5   Beg
6   End
7   
8   Beg
9   Beg
10  Beg
11  Beg
12  End

Answer 2

Since you are using MSSQL, you can write a CTE to get the result you are looking for.

Try this CTE:

declare @tab table
(
    id int,
    msg char(3)
)

insert into @tab
values  
(1, ''),
(2, ''),   
(3, ''),   
(4, ''),   
(5, 'Beg'),   
(6, 'End'),   
(7, ''),   
(8, 'Beg'),   
(9, ''),   
(10, ''),
(11, ''),   
(12, 'End')

;with cte as
(
    select top 1 tab.id, tab.msg
    from @tab tab
    order by tab.id

    union all

    select tab.id, case when tab.msg = '' and cte.msg = 'beg' then cte.msg else tab.msg end
    from @tab tab
    inner join cte cte on cte.id + 1 = tab.id
)

select *
from cte