Can you assign a random value based on a list?

reiem87

I am trying to automate the task of assigning a person to an assignment.

Users can submit a form, which generates a row on my sheet. The row then has to be manually assigned to someone to complete it. There are no values that can be used to really assign it to one given person- these are submission for setting up new items.

Is there a way to create a list of potential assignees and randomly assign it to one of them when a new submission comes in?

Lucas Rayala

@reiem87, Smartsheet doesn't have a random function, unfortunately. You could generate a list of random numbers in Excel, upload that list into a sheet, and then just go down the list grabbing the next value. You would need an auto-generated row number column in both sheets that start with the same value to have a reference. This assumes you have a set number of people you are assigning to -- you would have to recreate the Excel list based off the new number of people. The function in Excel looks like this:

=INT(RAND()*N)

where "N" is the number of people you are assigning things to.

Don't tell anyone there's a list, the magic of random will melt away for them.

Lucas Rayala

@reiem87, Smartsheet doesn't have a random function, unfortunately. You could generate a list of random numbers in Excel, upload that list into a sheet, and then just go down the list grabbing the next value. You would need an auto-generated row number column in both sheets that start with the same value to have a reference. This assumes you have a set number of people you are assigning to -- you would have to recreate the Excel list based off the new number of people. The function in Excel looks like this:

=INT(RAND()*N)

where "N" is the number of people you are assigning things to.

Don't tell anyone there's a list, the magic of random will melt away for them.