Here is a simple truth: if your spreadsheet requires you to copy and paste a name one hundred times just to run a fair raffle, your spreadsheet is working against you. The user who posted this question isn't asking for a workaround; they are asking for a tool that respects their time. And the standard answer, "expand your data into a long list", is not a solution. It is an admission that traditional spreadsheets were not designed for the reality of weighted data.
The request is straightforward: participants bought different numbers of tickets, and the raffle needs to reflect those odds without manual duplication. The fact that every search result fails to address the "number of tickets" column is revealing. It suggests that the common approach treats the spreadsheet as a static grid rather than a computational environment. You should not have to reshape your data to fit a broken workflow. The correct approach treats each row as a weighted entry, not a single entry. With a helper column that generates a random number multiplied by the ticket count, or a simple array formula that randomly selects from a weighted range, the entire process becomes a few clicks, no copy-paste required. This isn't advanced programming; it is basic math that your spreadsheet can already do if you stop treating it like a ledger.
What this user is experiencing is the gap between what spreadsheets promise and what they deliver out of the box. The tool asks you to be both the data organizer and the manual laborer. But when you need to run multiple raffles for different prizes, that labor multiplies. The real innovation here is not a new feature; it is a shift in perspective. You do not need to expand your data. You need to compress your effort. The solution lives in how you structure your formulas, not how many rows you fill.
The practical takeaway is this: if you are building a raffle, a lottery, or any weighted random selection, stop thinking about ticket counts as rows. Think of them as probabilities. Use a single formula that references the count directly. Your spreadsheet can do the heavy lifting. Let it.