Excel Question

[Slacker]

My Office skills are decent, but I'm really not good with Excel and my wife can't figure out if I can do this either. So, I ask you, the SD.net population at large.

Is it possible to take a list of entries in Excel and randomly extract a sample from that entire list? In this case, I've got a star list of nearby stars, and I'd like to randomly select, say, 200 stars out of the 2500 or so in the database. I've already sorted out the vast majority of unsuitable stars for my goal, so I don't need to preferentially weight towards, say, F or G type stars.

Anyone out there that can help?

[Steel]

Why do you actually need to cut out a portion of the stars? You can handle millions of data entries in fractions of a seconds for anything you do in excel really.

If you just want to get a random set, then you can make a new column and put a random number (=rand() in the top cell and drag the corner bit down the list) in it for each one, then sort by that column and the list will be randomised. Copy paste the first 200 and you're done.

[Slacker]

The reason I don't want all the data points is I'm going to import the data into Astrosynthesis and then generate solar system data for them using a plugin that works with GURPS 4e. 2500 stars would be a bit much.

That sounds like it'll work great, I appreciate it.

[Steel]

After a brief look at that Astrosynthesis website it looks really good! I might try and find a use for that sometime.

[Slacker]

It's a bit buggy with Vista but I love it.