Chapter 33: Analyzing Data with the Analysis ToolPak
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FIGURE 33.7
A chart produced from data generated by the moving average tool
The first few cells in the output are #N/A because too few data points exist to calculate the
average for these initial values.
Random number generation
Although Excel contains built-in functions to calculate random numbers, the random num-
ber generation tool is much more flexible because you can specify what type of distribution
you want the random numbers to have. Figure 33.8 shows the Random Number Generation
dialog box. The Parameters section varies, depending on the type of distribution that you
select.
Number of Variables refers to the number of columns that you want, and Number of Random
Numbers refers to the number of rows that you want. For example, if you want 200 random
numbers arranged in 10 columns of 20 rows, you specify 10 and 20, respectively, in these
fields.