Randomising

Thanks for putting this as a question. I have had a little time to play around with this, and I have come up with a solution. I will upload a test file here that might make it easier for you to copy it as well.

Turns out the complicated part is not the randomising, but the getting a list of desks.

In my data, I put a list of the locations in column E, and the list of how many desks in that location in column F.

The formula in column B then checks that list and repeats the location for the correct number of times for how many desks there are. That function is: =XLOOKUP(TRUE, COUNTIF($B$1:B1, $E$2:$E$4) < $F$2:$F$4, $E$2:$E$4, "No Available Desk")

You can adjust the E4 and F4 values in that function to account for how many different locations you have. Drag down that function in column B and it will give you a list of all the desk locations.

If that is too complicated, you can also just manually type how many desks for each location into column B.

To get the random order, we can use the RAND function. I have the list of all the names in column A, and in column C I have written '=RAND()'. I then autofilled that function down to the rest of the column. This now assigns a random number to each person.

To randomise the names, you can click on any number in column C, go to the home tab in your ribbon > Sort and Filter > Sort Smallest to Largest.

It won't change the order of the data in column B, but the names in Column A will rearrange themselves to fit this new order.

Because column C will randomise itself each time you do this, you can repeat the sort in order to generate a new randomised list.

Hopefully that makes sense. Please do let me know if you need any further advise with it.