Matching two columns of data
On Wednesday, November 21, 2012 5:38:48 AM UTC-8, JFLaj wrote:
Hi All,
I have two columns of numbers that need to be kept as pairs for example;
122 505
122 909
345 6576
555 676
I need to randomly choose a pair x amount of times. I am using this
formula in the first output column
=INDEX($I$2:$I$5,RANDBETWEEN(1,COUNTA($I:$I)),1), which is fine to
choose one of the numbers of column 1, however I am struggling to match
the randomly chosen first number with its corresponding second number.
This is as good as I have got
=INDEX($J$2:$J$5,(MATCH(L2,$I$2:$I$5,0)),). But the problem with is that
is chooses the first value it finds that corresponds to the correct
number in column 1. So 122 is always paired with 505 never 909. I need a
way to match the randomly chosen cell location rather than the value
itself.
Hope this makes sense. Thanks for any help.
--
JFLaj
Hi JFLaj,
Maybe this will work for you...
A1:A4 enter 1,2,3,4
B1:C4 is your example table
D1 enter =RANDBETWEEN(1,4)
Select BOTH cells E1 & F1 and enter =VLOOKUP(D1,A1:C4,{2,3},0)
Commit with ctrl + shift + enter.
Hit F9 to recalc results.
HTH
Regards,
Howard
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