Thank you very much! You're right, this produces the same result as the
formula I've been using and the result is what I'm accustomed to seeing.
I decided to ignore the tweak you offered in your next post. Why?
Because the formulas in this one are identical except for one word. It
just seemed the simplest thing to do. Even better, I almost understand
how/why this one works.

My thanks also to the others who offered their assistance.

Terry



"T. Valko" wrote in message
...
This seems to do the same thing as Harlan's formulas.

A1:An = player names or numbers

I'm assuming you enter this data as a contiguous block.

Enter this formula in B1 and copy down to B48:

=IF(A1="","",RAND())

Enter this formula in D1:

=IF(ROWS($1:1)<=COUNTA(A:A)/2,INDEX(A:A,MATCH(SMALL(B:B,ROWS($1:1)),B:B,0)),"" )

Enter this formula in E1:

=IF(ROWS($1:1)<=COUNTA(A:A)/2,INDEX(A:A,MATCH(LARGE(B:B,ROWS($1:1)),B:B,0)),"" )

Select both D1 and E1 and copy down to row 24 (max of 48 players at 2
per team = 24)

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP