Michael,
If your data is in a single column in Excel, then you could enter
"=Rand()" in an adjoining column and fill down. Sort both
columns by the new column. Your column of data is now randomly
dispersed and you can pick what ever portion you need.

If the order of the data is important, then before sorting add another
column and consecutively number it - from 1 to 32000.
After sorting all three columns and extracting your data, you can
then sort again using the numbers column to restore the original
data sequence..
--
Jim Cone
San Francisco, USA
http://www.realezsites.com/bus/primitivesoftware


"Michael Vestel"

wrote in message
I have way too much data. Is there a way to reduce how much data I have by
running a filter or smoothing algorith. there are many versions out there and
i'd think there would be a function in excel. I have too many (more than
32,000) data points and would like to reduce by 1/2 or 1/4 the data. I have
way too many points and can sacrafise quite a lot.

Michael Vestel