Excel Addin - to create Random Data

Yes, I know we aren’t talking Excel here - but most of us came from an Excel background, and remember how excited you got when you found a new FREE addin that really changed how you did things?

Well, I think that for many of us, this will still excite you. I was going through my YouTube feed this morning, and found this video from Mr. Excel:

But this isn’t actually about the date picker (which is pretty amazing itself) - this is about another addin I found from the same creator: Sam Rad (Radakovitz) - http://samradapps.com/mainmenu

The addin I’m talking about is called “Fake Data”, here is a screenshot on the addin.
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“Randomize, alter, mask, and create fake data quickly in Excel.”

My first thought - what a great thing for folks trying to create random data to demonstrate PowerBi tricks!
I have downloaded to my Excel (I’m using O365 loaded to my computer), and was able to create this random data by highlighting the range and selecting the data I wanted from the options in the ribbon.


(each column was added separately, so they are not actually related to one another in anyway)
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2 Likes

adding keywords: CREATE RANDOM DATA, RANDOM DATA SET, DUMMY DATA

Nice Heather.

I actually also have create a tool just like this. We use it for all our random data generation. It’s actually better than this one.

We haven’t made it public yet.

Maybe we should?

It’s actually a bit of a competitive advantage for us so I’m not sure…

I can see the competitive advantage, particularly in the filed of creating samples for teaching, with the ‘linked list’ option.

And I’m not surprised to see that you have developed your own that works for the EDNA materials. I’d probably want to keep the advantage in your position. :slight_smile:

@sam.mckay,

I’m really torn on this one - like @Heather, I see the competitive advantage in not sharing it, but I also see how it could really help address one of the major challenges on the forum - members not able to share their PBIX due to confidentiality concerns. I think the data masking video has helped in that regard, but the ability of posters to quickly and create sample data that mirrors their real data would be a major plus in our ability to provide specific solutions in those instances.

  • Brian

That video is actually what encouraged me to post this @BrianJ, I think it would be sufficient for most posters to get the random data they want easily.
Name, Address, Number, Date, even some masking or randomizing capability - for most users that will be quite enough.

Perhaps Sam could offer a slimmed down version of his own addin (since some will not want to go to an outside source for an addin but might accept it from a trusted teacher).

Or, instead of the addin itself, perhaps offer a macro-enabled file with the addin included, so the user just goes to that file to build their random data.