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Xray_Man Xray_Man is offline
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Default How to calculate frequency of lottery numbers?

Okay, AltaEgo, I'm still having a problem making it work. Maybe if I explain
what I want to do a little differently, it would help. I am looking at the
last 100 PowerBall games, and I want to calculate how often the numbers 1
through 59 have shown up in those 100 games. There are 5 white balls drawn in
each game, and each ball can have a value between 1 and 59. So, if say number
23 popped up 31 times over the last 100 games, I want to some how visualize
it. That's why I thought the Frequency function would be the right function
to use. I downloaded the last 100 games into arrays A1 through E100, where A1
through A100 represents the first of 5 balls drawn, then B1 through B100
represents the second of 5 balls drawn, etc. I used K1 to K59 just to have
an array of numbers from 1 to 59. Got me so far? Now, what I want to do is
to some how end up with either an array of frequencies or some sort of
histogram (like a bar chart) to visually display the frequencies as heights
of the bars in the bargraph. Then I could play the numbers with the highest
frequencies from the last 100 games. I realize that this scheme probably
won't make me a zillionairre, but it might give me a slight (and I mean VERY
slight) edge over letting the computer give me a random pick. Any input
would be much appreciated. THANKS again...


"AltaEgo" wrote:

Unless I misunderstand the question, you seem to be seeking a count of the
number of times each number appears in the range A1:E100. If so, in L1 enter
the formula:

=COUNTIF($A$1:$E$100,K1)

Copy the formula down to K59.

We all know whoever runs the lottery takes away the biggest prize but hope
springs eternal.
--
Steve

"Xray_Man" wrote in message
...
I'm new to Excel, so please explain things to this newbie in non-technical
terms as much as possible! I have downloaded the array of previous week's
winning lottery numbers, and I want Excel to create a number frequency
chart
for me. The numbers are 1 to 59. I want to calculate a histogram of the
frequencies of each number from 1 to 59. So far, I set up Excel so that
the
results of the previous lottery games are in 5 collumns.
A1:A100,B1:B100,C1:C100,D1:D100,E1:E100. I then entered the numbers 1
through
59 into K1:K59. I tried to use the Frequency function, which sort of seems
to
calculate the frequencies as expected, but I don't know where to find the
resulting array of frequencies. I hope what I just said didn't sound too
silly, but my problem is that I don't know how to complete the job so that
I
can some how view the array of frequencies in some easy to view form, such
as
a histogram. Any help would be most appreciated (and I hope it makes me
rich!! LOL)