Copying and Pasting Cell Values
In tables and grids, you can copy and paste cell values, the underlying values of their leaf members, and formulas. You can also create references between cells.
Data can be copied within or across grids and tables, and you can also copy data from an external source such as an Excel spreadsheet.
In a table, you can paste data into cells that can receive data input.
You can also cut and paste values. For details, see Cutting and Pasting Cell Values.
When copying data within a table, there are two types of paste operations: pasting details, or pasting overall values.
When you copy a source cell, the values of each of its underlying records in the table are copied as well. By default, all of these values are pasted if possible. This is known as pasting details.
For example, you might copy a Q1 member and paste it to Q2 for the same version. On the month level for a calendar year, the value for January will be copied to April, the value for February will be copied to May, and the value for March will be copied to June.
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You are pasting data to a single target cell. Cells that aggregate up to the target cell will also be affected.
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You are copying across two time periods at the same level, for example, December and January, or you are copying across two different leaf members, for example, from one sales manager to another.
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The source cell that you copied is visible.
When these conditions are not met, you are prompted to paste the overall value instead. In this case, the behavior is the same as typing the value into the cell. The distribution of the copied value among the leaf members is determined by the existing proportions between those members if the cell already has a value. Only the aggregated value of the source cell’s leaf members has been copied.
Copying and pasting details isn’t supported with a BPC live data connection. You can still copy and paste overall values, though.
If you want to specify which paste operation to use, you can select 
Paste Special (CTRL+SHIFT+V)
. You can then choose to Paste overall value or
Paste details to include underlying values, and set the
selected option as the default for future Paste Special operations.
You can copy and paste to and from table cells that show percentages. When copying and pasting between percentage cells and numerical cells in a table or in Excel, 100% is treated as a numerical value of 1.
A rectangular group of selected cell values can also be copied and pasted to multiple cells in a table. In this case, cell values are pasted as overall values.
This type of operation can also be performed by selecting a source area and dragging the bottom right corner of the region horizontally or vertically to include the target area. For example, you could select several account values for January and February 2019 and drag them to the December 2019 cell to paste the January and February data to alternating months for the rest of the year. If the target region is larger than the source region, the copied values are repeated. If the target region is smaller, not all of the source values are pasted.
Copying and pasting with empty cells
The destination cells can be booked values, unbooked values, or a mix of both. When there is a mix of booked and unbooked target cells, the proportions between the child members of booked cells are maintained before and after the operation.
When copying from a grid or an Excel spreadsheet, cells that are empty or that contain the en dash (–) character are treated as unbooked. You can therefore copy and paste data from an Excel spreadsheet to a region of unbooked cells while keeping some of the target cells unbooked. However, an unbooked value cannot be pasted to a booked cell.
Pasting to more than one account or restricted measure
The target cells can belong to different accounts, as long as the accounts use the same aggregation type.
The cells can also belong to two or more restricted measures, as long as the restrictions do not overlap. For example, you can copy the values of last year's Actual version in Q3 and Q4 to a pair of restricted measures, one that shows Forecast data in Q3 of the current year, and another that shows the Q4 Forecast. However, if the target area also includes a restricted measure that shows all Forecast data, the operation is not carried out because this measure overlaps the other two.
Pasting to more than one hierarchy level
If you paste to multiple levels of the same hierarchical dimension, values are pasted only to the child members in the target cells, and the cells for parent members are calculated by aggregation. For example, if you paste to an area that contains values for Q1, January, February, and March, then only January, February, and March are updated with the copied values. The new value for Q1 is calculated by aggregating the monthly values.
Avoiding slow performance
When there are multiple dimensions in the table, you can paste to different sets of members for each dimension. To avoid slow performance, you'll be notified when you try to paste to an area that includes a large number of different sets.
You can paste overall values to a calculated measure or account if you've defined an inverse formula for it. However, underlying values can't be pasted directly to a calculated measure or account at all.
In some cases, though, you can paste details to an empty aggregated account that has calculated subaccounts.
The cells of the calculated subaccounts do not receive any values directly, but the rest of the data is copied as usual. If the copied data includes calculation inputs, the calculation will show the same values in the target cells.
For example, you may have created a blank version with an empty top-level account like Income Statement, which has several calculated subaccounts. To quickly fill in the values, you can copy and paste the value of this account, including its underlying records, from an existing version to the new version.
Say one of the Income Statement subaccounts is Revenue, calculated as Price * Units Sold. If Price and Units Sold don't aggregate up to Income Statement, Revenue doesn’t receive any values in the new version. To get those values, you can copy the calculation inputs: Price and Units Sold.
When you copy an aggregated account with calculated subaccounts, possible empty target cells will be highlighted. Source and target cells need to belong to the same account, and meet the requirements for copying and pasting details. Also, the target cell can't be a restricted measure or account.
You can copy and paste between restricted accounts and measures (that is, accounts created using the RESTRICT function in the Modeler, and restricted measures created in the Calculation Editor). The target cells must be included in the restriction applied to the account or measure, however.
In many cases, such as when you are copying from one period to another in a forecast layout, it's helpful to copy the underlying records of the source cell. You can copy details across restricted measures when a few conditions are met:
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They are both restricted along the same dimensions.
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A single member is chosen for each restricted dimension. For example, Date = "2020".
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Each restricted dimension other than the Date dimension is restricted to a leaf member.
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The Date dimension is restricted to the same level, for example, Date = 2019 and Date = 2020.