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Programming a simple signature function?

I have a simple programming problem. I have several tables of numbers (in Excel) and I need to distinguish them from each other mathematically with a simple "digital sigature" type number. I don't really need a digital sig, but I do need some way of reducing the entire table to a simple number and using that number as an ID to distinguish it from another table.

My real tables are 100 rows long, but lets use a simple example of 5 rows: If Table A is the numbers [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] and table B is [2, 1, 3, 4, 5]. Then I need a way to come up with a single number that will be uniquely different for each table - so that is the positions of the numbers change, their "ID" signature will change as well. I can't use a simple sum, because obviously these would sum to the same number.

This is a lot like getting a digital signature - but that is beyond my programming ability. But with a signature, if any number changes anywhere, the whole signature is different.

Any ideas?

1 Answer

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Try using the power of the next cell with the last cell powered by the first cell - and averaging... In Your example the formula for Table A would look like this:

    =(POWER(A1,B1)+

    POWER(B1,C1)+

    POWER(D1,E1)+

    POWER(E1,A1))/5

    with a result of 207.6

    Table B would use the same formula but give a result of 210.4

    Hope this helps.

    Jim F.

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