From the Not Just Numbers blog:
Just a short post this week to tell you about a very handy little tool I found online.
If you develop as many spreadsheets as me, you will come across many situations where you need to enter some sample data into a spreadsheet to test it.
This can be pretty easy if it is numbers (you can use an excel function such as RANDBETWEEN, for example), but if you need a list of names, this can be a bit more tedious.
Aside: I’ve just realised that I don’t have an earlier post on random number functions to link to in the above pararagraph, so expect to see that in the next few weeks!
For names, I normally start making them up, but this gets harder than you think once you have exhausted Fred Bloggs, John Smith, etc! It’s also not the best use of my time!
I had a spreadsheet last week where I had to test it with the names of around 50 employees, which I had to make up. I thought a quick Google might be a better idea – and I came across a simple, yet ideal, on-line tool.
The perfectly titled listofrandomnames.com fitted the bill perfectly.
Within a few seconds I had 50 names to paste into my spreadsheet. I have to say that they weren’t necessarily everyday names, but that just made them a bit interesting. Who wouldn’t be impressed by a moniker as splendid as Sheridan Wolfenbarger?
There are a few quick choices to make:
- 5, 10, 20, 30 or 50 names?
- Male, Female or Both?
- First Names Only or Full Names?
- And even whether you require them to be alliterative!
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