Abstract

You and your 15 friends want to play in teams of 4 and you wonder how to come up with a fair distribution of teams?

Here you go:

sbGenerateTeams_Screen

This program combines several features which I like to use:

  1. The class SystemState helps to reduce runtime.

  2. With enumerations I organize access to worksheet columns flexibly - for additional columns or deleted columns you just amend the enumeration, and the program will re-adjust automatically.

  3. Reshuffle a set of elements with UniqRandInt.

  4. Sample data I generated with sbGenerateTestData.

Appendix – sbGenerateTeams Code

Please read my Disclaimer.

Option Explicit

#Const I_Want_Colors = True

#If I_Want_Colors Then
Private Enum xlCI 'Excel Color Index
: xlCIBlack = 1: xlCIWhite: xlCIRed: xlCIBrightGreen: xlCIBlue '1 - 5
: xlCIYellow: xlCIPink: xlCITurquoise: xlCIDarkRed: xlCIGreen '6 - 10
: xlCIDarkBlue: xlCIDarkYellow: xlCIViolet: xlCITeal: xlCIGray25 '11 - 15
: xlCIGray50: xlCIPeriwinkle: xlCIPlum: xlCIIvory: xlCILightTurquoise '16 - 20
: xlCIDarkPurple: xlCICoral: xlCIOceanBlue: xlCIIceBlue: xlCILightBrown '21 - 25
: xlCIMagenta2: xlCIYellow2: xlCICyan2: xlCIDarkPink: xlCIDarkBrown '26 - 30
: xlCIDarkTurquoise: xlCISeaBlue: xlCISkyBlue: xlCILightTurquoise2: xlCILightGreen '31 - 35
: xlCILightYellow: xlCIPaleBlue: xlCIRose: xlCILavender: xlCITan '36 - 40
: xlCILightBlue: xlCIAqua: xlCILime: xlCIGold: xlCILightOrange '41 - 45
: xlCIOrange: xlCIBlueGray: xlCIGray40: xlCIDarkTeal: xlCISeaGreen '46 - 50
: xlCIDarkGreen: xlCIGreenBrown: xlCIBrown: xlCIDarkPink2: xlCIIndigo '51 - 55
: xlCIGray80 '56
End Enum
#End If

Enum col_worksheet
    col_LBound = 0 'To be able to iterate from here + 1
    col_in_player_no
    col_in_player_name
    col_in_player_skill
    col_blank_1
    col_in_team_stats
    col_blank_2
    col_in_sim_stats
    col_blank_3
    col_out_team_no
    col_out_player_name
    col_out_player_skill
    col_blank_4
    col_stat_team_no
    col_stat_sum_skills
    col_Ubound 'To be able iterate until here - 1
End Enum 'col_worksheet

Sub sbGenerateTeams()
'Implements a simple Monte Carlo simulation to randomly generate
'teams fairly, keeping track of the teams with the lowest standard
'deviation of handicap sums.
'This sub needs VBUniqRandInt - google for sulprobil and uniqrandint.
'and the SystemState class - google for sulprobil and systemstate.
'Source (EN): http://www.sulprobil.com/sbgenerateteams_en/
'Source (DE): http://www.bplumhoff.de/sbgenerateteams_de/
'(C) (P) by Bernd Plumhoff 30-Jul-2022 PB V0.3

Dim i As Long, j As Long, k As Long, n As Long
Dim teamcount As Long
Dim playersperteam As Long
Dim stdev_hc_sum As Double, min_stdev As Double
Dim s As Double
Dim v As Variant
Dim state As SystemState

'Initialize
Set state = New SystemState
teamcount = wsI.Range("TeamCount")
wsI.Range("PlayersPerTeam").Calculate
playersperteam = wsI.Range("PlayersPerTeam")
n = teamcount * playersperteam
ReDim hc(1 To n) As Double
ReDim mina(1 To n) As Double
ReDim hc_sum(1 To teamcount) As Double
wsI.Cells.Interior.ColorIndex = False
#If I_Want_Colors Then
wsI.Range("A1:C1").Interior.ColorIndex = xlCIYellow
wsI.Range("E1").Interior.ColorIndex = xlCIYellow
wsI.Range("G1").Interior.ColorIndex = xlCIYellow
wsI.Range("E4").Interior.ColorIndex = xlCIYellow
wsI.Range("E2").Interior.ColorIndex = xlCILightYellow
wsI.Range("G2").Interior.ColorIndex = xlCILightYellow
wsI.Range("E5").Interior.ColorIndex = xlCILightYellow
wsI.Range("I1:K1").Interior.ColorIndex = xlCIBrightGreen
wsI.Range("M1:N1").Interior.ColorIndex = xlCIBrightGreen
wsI.Range("M" & teamcount + 2 & ":N" & teamcount + 2).Interior.ColorIndex = xlCILightGreen
#End If
For j = 1 To n
    hc(j) = wsI.Cells(j + 1, col_in_player_skill)
    #If I_Want_Colors Then
    wsI.Range("A" & j + 1 & ":C" & j + 1).Interior.ColorIndex = xlCILightYellow
    #End If
Next j
min_stdev = 1E+308

k = 1
Do
    v = VBUniqRandInt(n, n)
    For i = 1 To teamcount
        hc_sum(i) = 0
        For j = 1 To playersperteam
            hc_sum(i) = hc_sum(i) + hc(v((i - 1) * playersperteam + j))
        Next j
    Next i
    stdev_hc_sum = WorksheetFunction.StDev(hc_sum)
    If stdev_hc_sum < min_stdev Then
        For i = 1 To n
            mina(i) = v(i)
        Next i
        min_stdev = stdev_hc_sum
        Application.StatusBar = "Iteration " & k & ", new min stdev = " & min_stdev
    End If
    k = k + 1
Loop Until k > wsI.Range("SimCount")

wsI.Range(wsI.Cells(2, col_out_team_no), _
    wsI.Cells(1000, col_stat_sum_skills)).ClearContents
        
For i = 1 To teamcount
    s = 0#
    For j = 1 To playersperteam
        wsI.Cells(1 + (i - 1) * playersperteam + j, col_out_team_no) = i
        wsI.Cells(1 + (i - 1) * playersperteam + j, col_out_player_name) = _
            IIf("" = wsI.Cells(1 + mina((i - 1) * playersperteam + j), col_in_player_name), _
                "[Empty]", wsI.Cells(1 + mina((i - 1) * playersperteam + j), col_in_player_name))
        wsI.Cells(1 + (i - 1) * playersperteam + j, col_out_player_skill) = _
            CDbl(wsI.Cells(1 + mina((i - 1) * playersperteam + j), col_in_player_skill))
        s = s + wsI.Cells(1 + mina((i - 1) * playersperteam + j), col_in_player_skill)
        #If I_Want_Colors Then
        wsI.Range("I" & 1 + (i - 1) * playersperteam + j & ":K" & 1 + (i - 1) * _
            playersperteam + j).Interior.ColorIndex = xlCILightGreen
        #End If
    Next j
    wsI.Cells(1 + i, col_stat_team_no) = i
    wsI.Cells(1 + i, col_stat_sum_skills) = s
    #If I_Want_Colors Then
    wsI.Range("M" & i + 1 & ":N" & i + 1).Interior.ColorIndex = xlCILightGreen
    #End If
Next i
wsI.Cells(2 + teamcount, col_stat_team_no) = "StDev"
wsI.Cells(2 + teamcount, col_stat_sum_skills) = min_stdev
End Sub

Please read my Disclaimer.

sbGenerateTeams.xlsm [46 KB Excel file, open and use at your own risk]