Tech Tip: Randomizing Data in Microsoft Excel

January 31, 2014 | Posted in Business, How to, technology

Excel is a powerful data analysis tool. In this blog post, we will look at how to use the =RAND() function in Microsoft Excel to randomize a column of data. Randomizing data in Microsoft Excel could be important for a number of reasons, especially if you are trying to do any type of anonymous analysis.

Step 1. Organize your data in excel

Organize the data you want to randomize in the first column so that we can use some built-in Excel functions to randomize the data you want.

Step 2. Using the RAND() function

1. In an adjacent column, click on the top cell in that column and enter the formula =RAND() into the formula bar. That should generate a random decimal number into that cell.

2. After you have generated the first random number, highlight all of the rows in the random column that you want to also contain a random number. Once you have the correct range highlighted, open the edit menu> locate the fill option> and choose down to fill the rest in the rest of the highlighted cells with random numbers.

3. After filling your second column with random integers, highlight both columns and open the data menu. Locate the sort option and sort the two columns by the column containing the random data. You can choose either smallest>largest or largest>smallest. Either will give you a good random sampling.

4. By sorting the columns by the random data, this should have rearranged your data in the first column in a random order. Now you can delete the random data in the second column and enjoy your random sampling : )

Learn more about excel

There are lots of other cool things that excel can do, so be sure to check out some other tutorials on the site.