Random Sampler

An add-in for Microsoft Excel that creates random samples from your data.

  • Randomly sample a single worksheet
  • Randomly sample multiple worksheets at a time
  • Exclude or include from sampling based on a value test
  • Exclude or include from sampling based on entries in key columns or if the row is colored
  • Mark rows that are selected with color or a cell entry
  • Able to handle very large databases
  • Watermark sample data for verification

The Random Sampler is a great tool for anyone who must create random samples. It can be used to select a random sample from a list of employees, invoices, accounts, orders, or anything.

It is menu driven and easy to use. You just select your list in the Excel worksheet and tell it how many samples to extract. You can exclude from the samples rows that have already been sampled. Or you can exclude from sampling if there is an entry in a particular column or if the row is colored. This makes it very easy to create a new sample list and not include previously sampled data.

The following illustrates samples of an invoice worksheet, where the sample rows have both been colored and have had a date inserted in column I indicating that the row was sampled and when:

Random Sampler example showing colored and dated sample rows
Sampled rows colored and dated

The Random Sampler provides two ways to document that your samples came from using the Random Sampler:

  • Image files of the sample rows can be created. These image files have a special watermark to make them difficult to modify.
  • One can specify the seed for the random sampling. By specifying a seed value, you can share it with another party (such as an independent auditor), who can duplicate the identical sample from the data using their copy of the Random Sampler.
Watermarked image file of sample rows
Watermarked sample image

The following are just some of the features of the Random Sampler:

  • Exclude rows if previously sampled
  • Sample only rows that meet a sampling criteria, like sampling only invoices over $1000
  • Extract samples across multiple worksheets
  • Use a random seed you specify so that the sampling can be duplicated by others
  • Create image files of the random samples — image files contain watermarks

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