Forum Discussion
Excel Formula
I am trying to create a formula so that I can plug in 12 to 20 numbers and it puts them in groups of 4 that all equal the closest number possible. By the same number I mean that once the groups are m...
Is this an optimisation exercise in which you need to be sure there is no other grouping with a smaller spread of mean values or is the aim just to have a reasonable expectation that the spread will be small?
If the latter, you could sort the numbers and then group them by a sequence such as
{a, b, c, d; d, c, b, a; a, b, c, d; d, c, b, a}
The chart shows (orange) numbers picked out at random versus (blue) numbers picked by their place in the ordered sequence.