How to pick a random number from a range of cells

Here’s how to pick a random number from a range of cells in Excel. And actually, it doesn’t need to be a number. If you have a range that contains data (names, numbers, dates, whatever) and you need to randomly select a value from that range, you can use the pwrRANDFROMRANGE function. It’s as easy as selecting the range. See below.

Example

Let’s say you have data contained in a range of cells between A1 and D200. Let’s say this range contains a set of names and you want to randomly select one. You would use the following formula in Excel.

=pwrRANDFROMRANGE(A1:D200)

If your data is contained in a single column. No problem. pwrRANDFROMRANGE works just as well with single columns or rows.

=pwrRANDFROMRANGE(A1:A200)

or..

=pwrRANDFROMRANGE(A1:D1)

You don’t have pwrRANDFROMRANGE as a function in Excel?

In order to use the pwrRANDFROMRANGE function in Excel (if you don’t already have it) you will need to install the Excel PowerUps Premium Suite add-in. Among many other functions included, pwrRANDFROMRANGE will make it super easy to pick a random number from a range of cells in Excel.

Additionally, the Excel PowerUps Premium Suite makes additional random data generation or selection functions available. These functions are summarized below.

pwrRANDFROMSET will return a random value from a set or list of them provided in the function call.

pwrMAYBE will return TRUE or FALSE based on a set of boolean results. Whether TRUE is ultimately returned is dependent on a probability value you supply.

pwrRANDOMTEXT will return some random text sampled from the lorem ipsum typesetting text.

pwrRANDOMNAME will return a random name. You can choose among full, first, last, male, and female.

There you go.