Ever wanted to make a random sentence or text? You can use Excel formulas to make totally random sentences. This is a great way to generate test data or dummy data-sets.
There are two ways to make the random sentences. You can use dynamic arrays in Excel 365 or regular functions in older versions.
Random sentences formula – Excel 365 with dynamic arrays
See next section if you are using older versions of Excel (2016 / 2013 etc.)
A random sentence is nothing but random string made of alphabets & punctuation. For sake of simplicity, let’s limit the character set to {a..z}, space and period.
The formula
=SUBSTITUTE(
SUBSTITUTE(
CONCAT( CHAR( RANDARRAY(120,1,97,124,TRUE) )),
"{",". ")
,"|"," ")
How random sentence formula works?
Let’s go from inside.
RANDARRAY(120,1, 97,124, TRUE): This dynamic array function generates a list of 120 random integers between 97 and 124.
Wait a sec… what the function is RANDARRAY?
RANDARRAY is a part of newly introduced dynamic array functions in Excel 365. This function, just like other DA functions (FILTER, UNIQUE, SORT etc.) can generate an array of items and spill them out on the spreadsheet.
Read up more about RANDARRAY function.
Why 97 and 124?
Because 97 stands for “a” in computer code and 122 stands for “z” in computer code (ASCII code). We need two more numbers for SPACE and PERIOD.
CHAR(RANDARRAY(..)): This will turn the random numbers in to equivalent letters (a to z { and |)
CONCAT(CHAR(…)): This concatenates all the letters to one giant 120 letter string.
SUBSTITUTE(CONCAT(…), “{“, ” “): This replaces all { with SPACE.
SUBSTITUTE(…, “|”, “. “): This replaces all | with PERIOD-SPACE.
The result
We will end up with a random sentence. Just recalc (F9) to make a new sentence.
Lorem ipsum with Excel formulas – All versions
What if you don’t have RANDARRAY? Well, you can a simple formula to generate standing typesetting text – Lorem ipsum…
Lorem ipsum formula
First place the sample “Lorem ipsum” paragraph in a cell, say F6. You can download the entire paragraph from lipsum.com. Alternatively, you will find this in the sample Excel file too.
Now use below formula to fetch random words (between 9 to 16) from the text.
=LEFT($F$6,
FIND("#",
SUBSTITUTE($F$6," ","#",RANDBETWEEN(9,16))))
How this formula works?
This formula is a lot simpler than the RANDARRAY based one.
Going from inside,
- RANDBETWEEN(9,16) generates a random number
- SUBSTITUTE replaces that random space with # symbol
- FIND gets the location of #
- LEFT returns the words in F6 from left until it found that # symbol
Random Sentence Formulas – Explained
In case you are still foggy about the details of these formulas, check out below video. You can also watch it on my Youtube channel.
Download sample file – Random sentence formula
Click here to download the sample file to make random sentences. Examine the formulas to learn more about RANDARRAY, CONCAT, SUBSTITUTE, FIND and CHAR functions.
21 Responses to “How to Filter Odd or Even Rows only? [Quick Tips]”
Infact, instead of using =ISEVEN(B3), how about to use =ISEVEN(ROW())
So it takes away any chance of wrong referencing.
I like Daily Dose of Excel
I like it.
Just a heads up, you do need to have the Analysis ToolPak add-in activated to use the ISEVEN / ISODD functions. An alternative to ISEVEN would be:
=MOD(ROW(),2)=0
rather than use a formula, couldn't you enter "true" in first cell and "false" in the second and drag it down and than filter on true or false.
Just for clarification, is Ashish looking to filter by even or odd Characters or rows?
so many functions to learn!
Nice support by chandoo and team as a helpdesk. Give us more to learn and make us awesome. Always be helpful.......
In case you want to delete instead of filter,
IF your data is in Sheet1 column A
Put this in Sheet2 column A and drag down
=OFFSET(Sheet1!A$1,(ROWS($1:1)-1)*2,,)
(This is to delete even rows)
To delete odd rows :
=OFFSET(Sheet1!A$2,(ROWS($1:1)-1)*2,,)
If your numbered cells did not correspond to rows, the answer would be even simpler:
=MOD([cell address],2), then filter by 0 to see evens or 1 to see odds.
I sometimes do this using an even simpler method. I add a new column called "Sign" and put the value of 1 in the first row, say cell C2 if C1 contains the header. Then in C3 I put the formula =-1 * C2, which I copy and paste into the rest of the rows (so C4 has =-1 * C3 and so forth). Now I can just apply a filter and pick either +1 or -1 to see half the rows.
Another way, which works if I want three possibilities: in C2 I put the value 1, in C3 I put the value 2, in C4 I put the value 3, then in C5 I put the formula =C2 then I copy C5 and paste into all the remaining rows (so C6 gets =C3, C7 gets =C4, etc.). Now I can apply a filter and pick the value 1, 2, or 3 to see a third of the rows.
Extending this approach to more than 3 cases is left as an exercise for the reader.
Another way =MOD(ROW();2). In this case, must to choose betwen 1 and 0.
[...] How to Filter Even or Odd rows only [...]
very different style Odd or Even Rows very easy way to visit this site
http://www.handycss.com/tips/odd-or-even-rows/
Thanks for the tip, it worked like magic, saved having to delete row by row in my database.
Thanks!
Thankssssssssssssssss
Hi Chandoo- First of all thanks for the trick. It helped me a lot. Here I have one more challenge. Having filtered the data based on odd. I want to paste data in another sheet adjacent to it. How can I do that?
For Example-
A 1 odd
B 3 odd
C 4 even
D 6 even
I have fileted the above data for odd and want to copy the "This is odd number" text in adjacent/next sheet here. How can I do that. After doing this my data should look like this
A 1 odd This is odd number
B 3 odd This is odd number
C 4 even
D 6 even
Hi! Could you please help me find a formula to filter by language?
Thank you!
Chandoo SIR,
I HAVE A DATA IN EXCEL ROWS LIKE BELOW IS THERE ANY FORMULA OR A WAY WHERE I CAN INSTRUCT I CAN MAKE CHANGES , MEANS I WANT TO WRITE ONLY , THE FIG IS FRESH, BUT IN BELOW ROW IT WILL AUTOMATICALLY TAKE THE SOME WORDS FROM FIGS AND MAKE IN PLURAL FORM , WHILE USING '' ARE'' LIKE BELOW
The fig is fresh - row 1
Figs are fresh - row 2
The Pomegranate is red - row 3
Pomegranates are red - row 4
=IF(EVEN(A1)=A1,"EVEN - do something","ODD - do something else") with iferron (for blank Cell)