Excel Champs Blog

    Generate Random Letters in Excel

    Ever faced a situation where you need to generate random letters?

    Yes, sometimes we need to generate random letters.

    We have functions like RAND and RANBETWEEN to generate random numbers but we don’t have any particular function to generate letters.

    But today, I will share with you an amazing formula trick to generate random letters in excel.

    And, the best part is it’s simple and easy to use.

    Formula To Generate Random Letters in Excel

    As I say, there is no direct function in excel which can help you to get random letters/alphabets.  But, we can use a combination of RANDBETWEEN and CHAR to create a formula to get random letters.

    And, the formula will be.

    • Generate capital random letters: =CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(65,90))

    generate random letters with capital letters

    • Generate small random letters: =CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(97,122))

    generate random letters with small letters

    You can drop this formula up to the cell where you want to generate random letters.

    How does this formula Generate Random Letters

    Now, let me tell you how does this formula generate these letters. First of all, you have to understand that this formula works in two different parts.

    how this formula generate random letters

    In the first part, you have RANDBETWEEN function which can generate random numbers for you. You just have to specify the lowest number and highest number. And, it will return a random number from that range.

    In short, you will get a random number in result within the range.

    generate random letters edit randbetween

    Now, in the second part, you have CHAR function which can return a specific character when you specify a number in it.

    That means for each character there is a specific number you have to insert in CHAR function. And, numbers 65 to 90 represent capital letters and 97 to 122 small letters.

    If you enter 65 in CHAR it will return “A” and for 97 it will return “a”.

    generate random letters edit char

    The Bottom Line is when you specify any of the above range in RANDBETWEEN it will return a random number and after that CHAR function will return a character for that number.

    generate random letters drop down

    This is the whole story.

    Quick Tip: RANDBETWEEN is a volatile function so you need to care while using it.

    Conclusion

    Generating random letters is no big deal. And, the formula you have used above is simple and easy to apply. The best use of this method in the real world which I have found is you can use it for generating random groups for participants.

    I hope you found it useful.

    Now, I want to hear something from you. Do you have any other method to create random letters? Please share with me in the comment section, I would love to hear from you.