Tom’s Tutorials For Excel: Using the RAND Function to Extract Random Data

Tom’s Tutorials For Excel: Using the RAND Function to Extract Random Data

Here are examples of how numbers or data can be extracted using the RAND function.
The examples and formulas listed below relate to the following picture.

Example 1: Randomly return a number between numbers, such as from 1 to 10.
Formula in cell A4 is =INT(RAND()*10)+1

Example 2: Example 1 in practice, to randomly return an item in a 10-item list.
Formula in cell E7 is =INDEX(A8:A17,INT(RAND()*(10)+1))

Example 3: Similar to Example 1, this time from 65 to 90.
Formula in cell A20 is =INT(RAND()*(91-65)+65)

Example 4: Example 3 in practice, to randomly return a letter of the alphabet.
Formula in cell A23 is =CHAR(INT(RAND()*(91-65)+65))

Example 5: Random time between two times such as from 9:00 AM and 2:00 PM.
Formula in cell A26 is =RAND()*(TIME(9,0,0)-TIME(14,0,0))+TIME(14,0,0)