How do I randomize names?

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Level 1

8 points

How do I randomize names?

Hey everyone, I'm a little new to numbers; I have some experience with functions/formulas but my question relates to how i would like my entries to be rearranged......

I want to be able to create one column with a large list of names and then have the next column be that same list of names, but in a random order. In a perfect world I would also like to be able to tell Numbers how many groups of people I want and for it to create another column that evenly splits up the names into that many groups. (eg: if i have 100 names and state that I want 10 groups, then i would like numbers to assign a 1 to the first 10 randomly picked names, a 2 to the next 10, etc etc...)

I have no idea if this is the most efficient way to go about this, but I simply want my end result to be at least randomized list of names and for them to ideally be distributed evenly across a certain number of groups.

Thx a lot in advance!!!

15" Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.7), 24" iMac, 32 GB Black iPhone 3GS

Posted on Jul 14, 2009 3:19 PM

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Answer 1

Badunit

Level 7

30,708 points

Jul 14, 2009 4:12 PM in response to dfinkel91

Here's one way to randomize the names. For this example the names are in column B, cells B2-B8. It takes three other columns:

Cell C2 = RAND() (a random number to go with each name)
fill down to C8

Cell D2 = RANK(C2,$C$2:$C$8) (ranks each random number from 1-7)
fill down to D8

Cell E2 = INDEX($B$2:$B$8,D2) (chooses a name based on the rank of the number in column D)
fill down to E8

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Answer 2

Badunit

Level 7

30,708 points

Jul 14, 2009 5:09 PM in response to dfinkel91

You only have to enter three simple formulas then copy/paste, fill down, or drag them all down to the bottom of your table. In my first post I said "fill down" for each formula but you can do them all at once as the last step instead. Should take less than five minutes, tops. Also, if you want to re-randomize the list, add a checkbox somewhere and every time you check or uncheck the box the list will get reordered.

You can use these formulas instead, they're even simpler:

Column C =RAND()
Column D=RANK(C,C)
Column E=INDEX(B,D+1) (assumes you have one header row)

Message was edited by: Badunit

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Answer 3

dfinkel91 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 14, 2009 4:29 PM in response to Badunit

so is there no faster way? i was planning on using that for a massive list of names, but manually entering that would take ages. hope i dont sounds whiny, im just stupid lol

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Answer 4

dfinkel91 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 17, 2009 11:37 PM in response to Badunit

haha thanks those looks much more user friendly 🙂

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