Data Randomization

[Hannie1004]

I asked this question before but it wasn't answered correctly
So i will pose the question again in a different way.
i have a spreadsheet of 3000 company names with associated data
for example...
column A - company name (text) - alphabetical order descending
column B - numbers
I want to sort the list (text - company names) randomly to take the stats of
only 500 companies but randomly chosen. Is there anyway to automatically
scatter column A randomly to accomplish this.
Thanks

[Gary L Brown]

Put the formula...
=RAND()
in a column running down the list of 3000
Sort on the column that you put the Rand formual in...ensuring that you are
encompassing the entire range of your data.
You can sort Ascending or Descending. It doesn't matter, it's random :O>.
Take the top 500 in the list.

HTH,
--
Gary Brown
gary_brown@ge_NOSPAM.com
If this post was helpful, please click the ''Yes'' button next to ''Was this
Post Helpfull to you?''.


"Hannie1004" wrote:

> I asked this question before but it wasn't answered correctly
> So i will pose the question again in a different way.
> i have a spreadsheet of 3000 company names with associated data
> for example...
> column A - company name (text) - alphabetical order descending
> column B - numbers
> I want to sort the list (text - company names) randomly to take the stats of
> only 500 companies but randomly chosen. Is there anyway to automatically
> scatter column A randomly to accomplish this.
> Thanks

[Hannie1004]

Thanks SO much... i get it now. I got the same response previously but didn't
understand. Thanks a bunch!

"Gary L Brown" wrote:

> Put the formula...
> =RAND()
> in a column running down the list of 3000
> Sort on the column that you put the Rand formual in...ensuring that you are
> encompassing the entire range of your data.
> You can sort Ascending or Descending. It doesn't matter, it's random :O>.
> Take the top 500 in the list.
>
> HTH,
> --
> Gary Brown
> gary_brown@ge_NOSPAM.com
> If this post was helpful, please click the ''Yes'' button next to ''Was this
> Post Helpfull to you?''.
>
>
> "Hannie1004" wrote:
>
> > I asked this question before but it wasn't answered correctly
> > So i will pose the question again in a different way.
> > i have a spreadsheet of 3000 company names with associated data
> > for example...
> > column A - company name (text) - alphabetical order descending
> > column B - numbers
> > I want to sort the list (text - company names) randomly to take the stats of
> > only 500 companies but randomly chosen. Is there anyway to automatically
> > scatter column A randomly to accomplish this.
> > Thanks