How do I do a formula or whatever to process a list of random numbers?

[MountainMan1]

I need to process a column of random numbers, and do certain things with them, depending on their size. It is for some writing I am doing. Here is an example :

0.592437095
0.986644999
0.698993662
0.299869473
0.175831087
0.081866617
0.840500143
0.31014318
0.989504965
0.169993951


I want to convert them to percentages. If you were using the figures as investment returns or a percentage of market share, up to a point you could just use them by dividing or multiplying (I don't remember which way right off hand), and it might sound realistic. Like getting market share or a profit in business of 10 or 20%. With investing, even up to 300% profit on a trade might sound realistic, some stocks do go up that much if you get in early on them.

But higher numbers I was thinking I would need to divide (to get them smaller) and then multiply or divide that number (don't remember which) in the percent column so that it sounded more realistic.

I have tried if functions, nested if functions, even tried nested if and AND functions. Maybe because I don't understand them that well, I can't get them to work out right, or do the math in them right so they look realistic.

If anyone understands what I am trying to get at and knows a way I can do this, I would appreciate a reply. Thanks

 

[Special-K99]

You need to define clearly what you want.

You have a list of random numbers.
If you multiply them by 100 you can use them as a percentage.

It doesn't sound as though you've decided what you really want at the moment.

 

[joeu2004]

You need to be more specific about the results that you want.

First, of course, the values returned by RAND() are percentages. Just format that as Percentage. For example, the number 0.175831086796236 is 17.5831086796236%.

(Note: Never multiply by 100 and call that a "percentage". I know that some people and organizations do that. But it is very confusing. 17.5831086796236 [sic] is not a percentage. In order to use it as such, we must divide it by 100.)

However, it sounds like you might be interested in a random percentage within a specific range. Moreover, I suspect that you want percentages with a limited number (or no) decimal places. For example, 17.58% or 17%, not 17.5831086796236%.

To accomplish both goals, I would use RANDBETWEEN(...) divided by some power of 10.

For example, RANDBETWEEN(10,300)/100 formatted as Percentage for a random percentage between 10% and 300%.

Or RANDBETWEEN(1000,30000)/10000 formatted as Percentage with 2 or more decimal places for a random percentage between 10.00% and 300.00% (2 percentage decimal places).

And RANDBETWEEN(-1000,1000)/10000 formatted as Percentage with 2 or more decimal places for a random percentage between -10.00% and 10.00% (2 percentage decimal places). This is useful, for example, to generate random "returns" (percentage changes in stock prices).