Awesome. You guys are the best. Thank you very much for the help.


"Max" wrote in message
...
... how can Ralph have 16 times greater chance at winning than Tim?

Try this play as well ..

Assume the source table is in A1:B11 (headers in row1)

First, just data sort the table in ascending order by total points (col
B), viz.:

name Grand Total of all Points
mark 1
robert 1
tim 1
jim 2
jr 2
mike 2
harry 8
dick 9
tom 10
ralph 16

Then enter a zero in C2
place in C3: =SUM($B$2:B2)
Copy C3 down to C12
(ie copy down by one cell more than the last row in col B)
Leave C1 empty

Then, in any empty cell, just put:
=INDEX(A:A,MATCH(RANDBETWEEN(0,MAX(C:C)),C:C,1))
to generate the required "weighted" random draw which takes into account
the
commensurate chances by each name's points in col B. This is achieved via
col
C which produces the unique "buckets/tiers" corresponding to the sorted
points in col B.

Press F9 to re-generate / re-draw

Note that RANDBETWEEN requires the Analysis Toolpak to be installed and
activated. Check the "Analysis Toolpak" box (via Tools Add-Ins). Chip
Pearson's page has details on the ATP
at:http://www.cpearson.com/excel/ATP.htm
--
Max
Singapore
http://savefile.com/projects/236895
xdemechanik
---
"Peri S" wrote:
I was hoping to avoid that because there are points for each person for
each
month so that would get way up in the thousands...

"Ragdyer" wrote in message
...
I would expand the name list to include duplicates of a name,
commensurate
with the number of points.
5 Toms
3 Jims
2 Tammys
... etc.