In this tutorial, you will learn how to randomize a list in Google Sheets.
Generally when people think about the order of data in a spreadsheet, they want to sort that data in a specific way, but you may also run into situations where you need to randomize a list in Google Sheets. For example, if you want to create random break out or study groups for a meeting or class. Instead of trying to randomize a list manually or relying on complex formulas to randomly select each entry from the sorted list, you can automatically randomize a range in Google Sheets quickly in just a few clicks.
Here’s how:
Step 1
Select the range you want to randomize, excluding headers. Randomization is done based on rows, so you must select at least two rows, however you can select any number of columns
Step 2
Open the Data menu and click on the Randomize Range option
Step 3
The rows in the selected range will be sorted into a random order. Note that any blank rows in the range will be moved to the end of the list
Step 4
You can repeat the process as needed to get a different random order of the rows in the selection
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Summary
Example Spreadsheet: Make a copy of the example spreadsheet
In this tutorial, I covered how to randomize a list in Google Sheets. Want more? Check out all the Google Sheets Tutorials.