johnny vino -

One way to get normal random values is to use worksheet functions

=NORMINV(RAND(),Mean,StDev)

One way to get integer values approximately normal is

=INT(NORMINV(RAND(),Mean,StDev))

But, if you want only integer values 1,2,3,4, you need a discrete
approximation of the continuous normal distribution. Conceptually, there are
several ways to obtain the approximation. Or, you could just arbitrarily
assign probability 0.15, 0.35, 0.35, 0.15 to the values 1,2,3,4,
respectively.

- Mike
http://www.MikeMiddleton.com


"johnny vino" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to obtain the following:

A 30 column x 1000 row table of normal distribution of random item
responses
ranging from 1-4.

I'm not sure how to control the "Normal" output of the # generator, and I
can't figure out how to generate only natural numbers (no decimals). I
can
format the numbers to 0 decimal places, but the "truth" of the numberis
still
listed as 3.1223.. which isn't a response option on my tests. (that's a
joke)