A quick little project.

I just happened to visit a Web site that used another Web site to generate random numbers for contest giveaways. To me, an Excel user, that seemed like a silly place to go to get a random number when you could easily generate one on the fly within Excel.

So I whipped up a tiny Excel spreadsheet to do the job. You just put the minimum value in one box and the maximum value in the other and Excel generates a random number between the two for you. To generate additional random numbers in the range, just press Command-= (on a Mac) or Control-= in Windows. The worksheet is protected so you can’t accidentally delete the formula that does the magic.

Although I created the worksheet in Excel 2004 for Mac OS, it can be opened in Excel 2003 and Excel 2007 for Windows, too.

Want a copy? Download it here.

Update 4/22/11: Apparently, the file has been lost in a server transfer. I’m updating it now and will restore the above link when it’s online. Sorry, folks!

Later: I recreated the file and put it in a new location on the server. The above link should work. Also, please note that there is now an easier way to do this with Excel; use the RANDBETWEEN function instead.

Update 2/6/12: This post has become very popular. But wouldn’t you rather do this the easier way? I explained RANDBETWEEN in a new post today.