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i have about 300,000 records in this spreadsheet. and there are a couple hundred columns!!

one of the columns is the social security number and i need to replace it with some random identifier. i cant really do a vlookup because that is too taxing so i think i am going to write a macro

can anyone please suggest to me how do i do this?

please note that the social security numbers appear multiplle times. so i need them to map correctly to the new unique identifier

Deduplicator
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Alex Gordon
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2 Answers2

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Create a hash based on the current SSN.

An example is here using SHA1 hash. Plenty of other options exist, including creating your own.

corsiKa
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  • this is a brilliant idea actually!!! so far it is working, 74% we'll see what happens! – Alex Gordon Jun 29 '10 at 19:02
  • I'd like to point out that ChristopheD's advice is sound. While the hashing of sensitive data would possibly apply there as well, you may want to consider putting this in a database. It might simply things, especially as it grows even bigger! – corsiKa Jun 29 '10 at 20:31
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Why not simply enter a Random number in the column in question, like =RAND(), double-click the bottom corner of the cell to copy the formula to the bottom of your sheet, then copy/paste special value the column on itself to get rid of the formula?

Mathias
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