How to select cells randomly in Excel?

Supposing you have a column of values (A1: A15) in a worksheet, and now you need to select 5 random cells of them, how could you deal with this? In this article, I will show you some tricks to select cells randomly in Excel.

Select cells randomly from a column with formula

Select cells randomly from a range with Kutools for Excel

Select cells randomly from a column with User Defined Function (UDF)

Select cells randomly from a column with formula

As the following screenshot shows, you have a range of data from A1 to A15, the Rand and Index formula can help you display the random cells in a new column. Please do as follows:

1. In the adjacent cell such as B1, enter the formula =RAND(), and press the Enter key, then copy the formula to the cell B15. And the random values will be filled with the cells. See screenshot:

2. Then in the next cell over, in this case cell C1, enter the formula =INDEX($A$1:$A$15,RANK(B1,$B$1:$B$15)).

3. Then press Enter key, and select the cell C1, drag the fill handle to cover as many cells as desired selections. And random 5 cells of range A1:A15 have been displayed in the column C. See screenshot:

This method can display the random cell values in a new column, and they are only applied for a single column range, not work for a range of cells. Kutools for Excel's Sort Range Randomly tool can help you select cells randomly in an original range conveniently.

Select cells randomly from a range with Kutools for Excel

After free installing Kutools for Excel, please do as below:

1. Select the range that you want to use.

2. Apply the utility by clicking Kutools > Range > Sort / Select Range Randomly, see screenshot:

3. In the Sort / Select Range Randomly dialog box, click Select button, and enter the number of the cells that you want to select, then check the Select Type you need. Then click OK or Apply. See screenshot:

Select random 10 cells from the selected range

Select random 5 rows from the selected range

Select random 4 columns from selected range

Advanced to select random cells, Sort Range Randomly of Kutools for Excel can sort data randomly in whole range, in each rows, in each columns and so on.

Select cells randomly from a column with User Defined Function (UDF)

The following VBA code also can help you to display random cells that you need.

1. Click Developer > Visual Basic, a new Microsoft Visual Basic for applications window will be displayed, click Insert > Module, and input the following function into the Module:

Function RandomSelection(aRng As Range)
'Update20131113
Dim index As Integer
Randomize
index = Int(aRng.Count * Rnd + 1)
RandomSelection = aRng.Cells(index).Value
End Function

2. Then close the module window, and enter this function =RandomSelection($A$1:$A$15) in the cell B1. See screenshot:

3. Press Enter key, and a random value of A1:A15 has been displayed in column B. And then drag the fill handle to cover as many cells as desired selections.

Related Article:

Randomly sort cells in a column or range