Generating Random Times, Dates, Datetimes

We can quite easily generate all kinds of random numbers using Excel functions like RAND or RANDBETWEEN. The same functions allow us generate also random time and date, but the formulas involved are a bit more complicated. Here are some examples of values calculated with formulas provided beneath the table.

The following formulas have been used for times and dates shown in the five columns (from left to right):

=TEXT(RAND(),"HH:MM:SS")

=TEXT(FLOOR(RAND(),"00:00:05"),"HH:MM:SS")

=TEXT(RAND()*(15-14)/24+14/24,"HH:MM:SS")

=TEXT(RANDBETWEEN("2024-07-01","2024-12-31"),"YYYY-MM-DD")

=TEXT(RAND()*("2024-12-31 12:00:00"-"2024--07-01 12:00:00")+"2024-07-01 12:00:00","YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS")

CELLS: Blank, Empty, Space, Zero

Back to basics... 

What's the meaning of all these basic terms in Excel?

BLANK cell: empty or not? Not quite, may contain "" (zero length text string)

EMPTY cell: nothing is there (no text string, no zero); always evaluates to zero

Cell with SPACE: contains 'space' character (=" ")

Do you know that: 

TIPS for CLICKS: Using drop-down lists for data entry

This is an excellent helper for data entry in Excel. When we create worksheets with tables of data or databases, in many cases there are text entries, expressions or phrases that we have to enter repeatedly many times. In such situations we can create lists of entries, like people names, phone numbers, cities, days of the week, months, whatever is included in tables, and then create drop-down lists based on the entries. Later, instead of typing the entries one by one in our table we just select the entries from the drop-down list.

Here is a simple example, based on the list of fruits. Follow the steps below to create the list.

Radar (or Spider) chart in Excel

Excel charts are not for numbers only...
Just an example.