Work with a huge spreadsheet

Question

I have about 300,000 entries in this table. and there are a couple of hundred columns!

one of the columns is the social security number, and I need to replace it with some random identifier. i can't really do vlookup because it's too taxing so i think i'm going to write a macro

Can anyone suggest me how to do this?

Please note that social security numbers are displayed as soon as possible. so I need them to appear correctly in the new unique identifier

Answer 1

Create a hash based on the current SSN.

An example is here using the SHA1 hash. There are many other options, including creating your own.

Answer 2

Why not just enter a random number in the column in question, for example = RAND (), double-click the bottom corner of the cell to copy the formula to the bottom of the sheet, and then copy / paste the special value into the column on yourself to get rid of the formula?