First time attempting a complex random generator, need guidence

[kevo1588]

I am pretty good at figuring things out, but I have never messed with a random generator before. I am just looking for a basic direction to go off of.

What my program will be doing is that you can already enter in names and vacation times. I am about to enter options for "limited duties"(basically people who cant stand certain shifts) with check boxes associated with names.

I am looking at 2 possibilities here, but don't want to go too far in either direction until i know the limits of a random generator. My hope is that I can do a seperate database for each shift (0600-1200 position 1 and 2, 1200-1800 position 1 and 2 and so on). each data base would populate names that were able to stand that exact position and shift time based on a userform with checkboxes. Then the random generator would grab names from each of those databases to fill it in with no duplicate names (nobody has 2 shifts)

otherwise, I would be looking at somehow adding it all into my already existing list of people database and just add columns to the right each one with a shift and position and somehow use that to random generate based on a true/false in each cell.

Which option is better or posible? or is there even a better way of doing this? Thank you.

[shg]

If some shifts are preferable to others, I would allow people to select what they want, by seniority or with rotating priority.

People use "random" when what they usually want is a long way from random. Someone will inevitably get the swing shift three weeks in a row if you use random assignments, and explaining that it was random will not mollify them.

[kevo1588]

so I see what you are saying, I was already looking into that as well. when I enter everything manually, I have a tracker for who has stood what watch how many times. This way I can get a proper rotation on each watch position too. I plan on attempting to implement this as well after i get a generator going.
As far as seniority works, this is the military I am doing this for and it would be one rank WILL stand each shift as one position, then another rank will stand onother position. If there aren't enough of the higher rank people, then the lower ranks take the spots next.

I am going to make an excel that is manually entered with an actual example of what I'm attempting to do.

[kevo1588]

EXAMPLE.xlsx I don't know how attaching an excel file works on here, hopefully this works.

This is just a manually entered document for 3 test names showing what I am attempting to do.

[Logit]

.
One of several formulas:

Please Login or Register  to view this content.

After pasting in cell, press CTRL / SHIFT / ENTER all at same time to create curly-cues at beginning and end of formula.

[kevo1588]

Thank you Logit, I can work with this a little and see how I can manage it. I like that it is random, but if person 1 can't stand a certain watch or certain time i wanted to be able to put that into the formula too.