Figured it out.
Step 1
Put a new column to the left of column1 and copy+paste the following formula
=B2=B3
=B3=B4
=B4=B5
... all the way to the bottom (assume column B here is column1 in the original question).
This formula evaluates whether or not the next row is a new value in column1. Deopending on the result, you will have TRUE or FALSE. Copy and Paste these results as values and then swap "FALSE" for nil and "TRUE" for 0.5
Step 2
Then add that column full of only 0.5's to the column1 which will yield the following table:
newcolumn0 | column1 ("B") | column2 | column3
-----------------------------------------------------
| 1 | small | blue
| 1 | small | orange
1.5 | 1 | small | yellow
| 2 | med | yellow
2.5 | 2 | med | blue
3.5 | 3 | large | green
| 4 | large | green
4.5 | 4 | small | pink
Step 3
Lastly, copy and paste the values from newcolumn0 right below the values in column1 and then sort the table by column1 and you should have a blank row in between each distinct whole number in column1, with the table something like this:
newcolumn0 | column1 ("B") | column2 | column3
---------------------------------------------------------------
| 1 | small | blue
| 1 | small | orange
1.5 | 1.5 | |
| 1 | small | yellow
| 2 | med | yellow
| 2 | med | blue
2.5 | 2.5 | |
| 3 | large | green
3.5 | 3.5 | |
| 4 | large | green
| 4 | small | pink
4.5 | 4.5 | |
Alternative Solutions (still no VBA)
- Put a value of 1 Column 1, Row 2 (assume this is A2)
- Put this formula in A3
=IF(B3=B2,A2,A2+1)
and copy+paste this formula for the rest of column 2
- Then copy and paste all the values from column 1 into a new temp excel sheet, remove duplicates, then add 0.5 to all numbers, then paste these values below the values in original spreadsheet below the data in column 1, paste all data in column as values and then sort by that column, delete the temp excel sheet