I want to display random courses (MBA, MSc) in OpenOffice Calc. I tried:
=RANDBETWEEN('MBA', 'MSc')
and
=RAND('MBA', 'MSc')`
but they don't work as desired.
Formula to return random string from list of strings?
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2 Answers
I'm not a user with a deep understanding of spreadsheets, but I thought this was an interesting question. I wanted to play around with an example with more than two choices and tried an exercise with six choices.
The OpenOffice wiki for the RAND function says...
RAND()*(b-a) + a
returns a random real number between a and b.
Since the CHOOSE function needed integers 1 to 6 to make the 6 choices, RAND would need to output numbers from 1 to 6, I let a=1 and b=6.
This was tested,
=CHOOSE(ROUND(5*RAND()+1);"Business";"Science";"Art";"History";"Math";"Law")
That output a random selection of the six courses, but I found the six choices did not have equal chances of selection. Business and Law had a 1 in 10 chance of being selected and Science, Art, History, and Math had a 2 in 10 chance of being selected.
=CHOOSE(ROUNDUP(6*RAND()+0.00001);"Business";"Science";"Art";"History";"Math";"Law")
Seems to give all six courses a practically equal chance for selection.
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