Thank you so much! That worked perfectly!
"Jerry W. Lewis" <post_a_reply@no_e-mail.com> wrote in message
news:3FA1978C.50609@no_e-mail.com...
> By definition RAND() generates decimal fractions uniformly between 0 and
1.
>
> When you sort, Excel sorts correctly based on the pre-sort values, but
> RAND() is a volatile function, so after the sort, it generates new
> random numbers, which will not be sorted. This is convenient if you
> want to re-order things several times. If you only want to do it once,
> generate the numbers, then copy and Edit|Paste Special|Values to prevent
> them from changing after sorting.
>
> Jerry
>
> Andrea wrote:
>
> > OK, instead of using the Add-in, I generated random numbers with the
=RAND()
> > command. That seems to have worked, but all of the numbers have
decimals.
> > That's okay, but I'm wondering why. Also, some of the numbers don't have
as
> > many places to the right of the decimal (one less).
> >
> > The real problem is that I can't sort this column in either ascending or
> > descending order. I select it, go to Data, Sort and am asked if I want
to
> > expand the selection. (Otherwise, I can't do it because my cells aren't
of
> > identical size. I think I need to expand though so that the other
columns
> > move along with the sorted column, don't I?) So I click OK to expand the
> > selection and it sorts, but the numbers aren't in chronological order.
For
> > example, I have 0.6x, then 0.4x, then 0.5x. then 0.4x. You get the idea.
I
> > don't know what criterion Excel used to sort these numbers. What am I
doing
> > wrong?
> >
> > "Andrea" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> > news:7Beob.116170$0Z5.58081@lakeread03...
> >
> >>Hello,
> >>
> >>I'm using Office XP with Windows 98SE and trying to create random
numbers
> >>
> > on
> >
> >>an Excel worksheet. I don't understand what to put in the dialogue box
> >>
> > from
> >
> >>the data analysis add-in for generating random numbers.
> >>
> >>My worksheet has a list of names. The other columns contain data about
> >>
> > these
> >
> >>names, but it's only the names that I'm concerned with right now. I want
> >>
> > to
> >
> >>generate random numbers for all of them. I've added a new column in
which
> >>
> > to
> >
> >>generate these numbers, but I don't understand how to fill in the
dialogue
> >>box. The help menu doesn't help! Here are the items: number of
variables,
> >>number of random numbers (the total of numbers I need to generate?),
> >>distribution, parameters: input range, random seed, output range. Please
> >>help! TIA.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
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