Hi,

I just seen this post from a while back and I think it should work for me
too. May I just check - do you have any tips for working with large
databases? I am expecting an extract of about 150,000 records with only
about 15 data fields for each. I think it should read into Excel 2007, but I
want to save time by doing analysis on a sample of just 5000 or maybe 10,000.

Many thanks,

Ruth

PS I do like your quote about malice & stupidity!

"Mike H" wrote:

Hi,

In column 5 enter the formula
=rand()
double click the fill handle and it should autofill down to the length of
column 4
Select all 5 columns and click
Data|sort|column E
and sort the columns
the top 150 will be randomely selected each time you sort

Mike

"staciern" wrote:

Hello

I have a list of 705 patients with four different columns with data in it.
I need a random sample consisting of 150 of those patients. Can someone
please help?
--
Stacie