Comments on: Selecting Random Names With Excel

By: Eric Burk

Eric Burk — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:21:38 +0000

Is there a way to add a weight to a name? If you were doing a raffle and someone bought 20 tickets, do you have to list them 20 times or can you take the number of tickets somehow into account?

By: Emily

Emily — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:34:28 +0000

This is very helpful, but I have another question:

How do I completely randomize an entire list of names with no duplicates?

By: Jorge Camoes

Jorge Camoes — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:05:16 +0000

I would prefer something like:

=choose(x,table)

where “table” is a named range with all the names (“B2:B21″) and x is a randomly generated number.

By: Brad

Brad — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:05:42 +0000

I also did the same.carry on guys…

By: Chris Garrett

Chris Garrett — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:03:07 +0000

What can I say, I am a geek, I over-geek things

By: Tony Rose

Tony Rose — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:03:32 +0000

Chris,

And you thought my solution was a little complex… Vlookup, nested stmt, INT, etc.

I’m not sure why this wouldn’t work on a MAC. For PC folks, simply use =RANDBETWEEN(1,4000)with Chris’ numbering method and that will give you the winner. Much easier than this formula.

Always glad to help!
Tony Rose

By: AKA Riptide Furse » What I Learned about on August 7th

AKA Riptide Furse » What I Learned about on August 7th — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:31:25 +0000

[...] Selecting Random Names With Excel : Codswallop – Random selections are necessary a surprising amount in day-to-day life. Most people opt for less than ideal solutions to the problem, drawing straws or names in a hat. This is ok when deciding who?s turn it is to buy the drinks but not so great when calling the non-randomness of your selection into question could land you in hot water. [...]

By: Chris Garrett

Chris Garrett — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:10:22 +0000

Seems like a nice solution, when I use a database I tend to ORDER BY a random number so it is pretty much the same

By: John McGarvey (copywriter)

John McGarvey (copywriter) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:18:56 +0000

The easiest method I’ve used also works in Excel:

1. In column A, put your list of names
2. On the first line of column B, type =rand(). This generates a random number.
3. Drag the random number down the B column so that each name has a random numbe beside it
4. Go to the data menu and sort by column B
5. The top 5 names (or whatever) are your winners

Sure, it’s quick and dirty … but it works!

The immediate disadvantages I think of are it’s a bit inelegant, and there’s no way to audit the results or ‘prove’ that your selection was random.

What do you think?