how to sort a column of Randomly selected numbers?
Hello,
SMALL does not work if data values are not unique.
A small example how it might work:
Enter into A1:B3:
37 =RAND()
13 =RAND()
57 =RAND()
Enter into C1:
=COUNTIF($B$1:$B$3,"<"&B1)+COUNTIF($B$1:B1,"="&B1)
and copy down to C3
If you now want to select 2 random values:
Enter into D1:
=INDEX($A$1:$A$3,MATCH(ROW(),$C$1:$C$3,))
and copy down to D2
Enter into E1:
=COUNTIF($D$1:$D$2,"<"&D1)+COUNTIF($D$1:D1,"="&D1)
and copy down to E2
Enter into F1:
=INDEX($D$1:$D$2,MATCH(ROW(),$E$1:$E$2,))
and copy down to F2
Columns B:D do the random selection, E:F sort the result.
This approach works also with text, not only with numbers. I suggest
to replace any SMALL or LARGE approach by the COUNTIF + COUNTIF
approach as shown above.
Regards,
Bernd
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