Help with Excel, please..

[zeroEthix]

I need a formula that will help create random letters down a column: A-F.

Probability of A=3%, B=6%, C=8%, D=11%, E=14%, F=16%

I've got it worked out to where each letter is a header of a column ("A" is in A1, "B" is in B1, etc.). My question is: how do I consolidate that in one column, so that, "A" for example, reads ABFCBACFBFBECEABCEABCEAFBCEFBCAFEBCFAEBFC...?

I'm using the random number generator for the 6 columns...thx

[hotkarl]

a1&b1&c1&.....

[Mark Cavazos]

Why not do it more directly?

Put the random number function in cell A1

In cell B1 use the formula =if(A1<3%,"A",if(A1<9%,"B",if(A1<17%,"C",if(A1<28% ,"D",if(A1<42%,"E",if(A1<58%,"F","Hey, these probabilities don't add up to 100%"))))))

Repeat in as many cells as necessary.

[zeroEthix]

Originally Posted by Mark Cavazos

Why not do it more directly?

Put the random number function in cell A1

In cell B1 use the formula =if(A1<3%,"A",if(A1<9%,"B",if(A1<17%,"C",if(A1<28% ,"D",if(A1<42%,"E",if(A1<58%,"F","Hey, these probabilities don't add up to 100%"))))))

Repeat in as many cells as necessary.

I'd like to do it that way, but I may be working with more letters...14-16. Nesting only goes to 7 statements

[atomic]

Reading posts like these frustrates me to no end that Mathematica is not more widely used in the actuarial field. I could write a Mathematica command to do this in my sleep.

[zeroEthix]

I played with it more..

I took 65535 and multiplied by the probabilities (0-1) of each letter then rounded to the nearest whole number. I then made one column with that many a', b's, c's, etc. In the column next to the Master column, I used =rand() then sorted by rand(): this made the letters appear random instead of simply listed by their weighting (probability).
---------------
I can also encapsulate this in a 100-character string named, say, Choices, defined as

="AAABBBBBBCCCCCCCC..."

Then use the formula

= mid( Choices, randombetween(1,100), 1 )

to retrieve a probabalistically weighted result.

[General Apathy]

Originally Posted by atomic

Reading posts like these frustrates me to no end that Mathematica is not more widely used in the actuarial field. I could write a Mathematica command to do this in my sleep.

What's mathematica?

[atomic]

Originally Posted by General Apathy

What's mathematica?

Ah..... It is math geek heaven, where a million digits of pi dance in a clear blue fractally-generated sky, and Bessel functions graze freely on lush hillsides of the greenest grass in the shape of Voderberg tiles.

[General Apathy]

sounds cool.

[Phil]

Go brush your teeth.