# Manipulate Data > Generate Patterned Data > Arbitrary Data Sequence

This utility generates a arbitrary data sequence in a column. The sequence consists of repetitions of values and repetitions of the whole sequence itself. Values in the sequence can be numbers or text values. To use this utility, you will specify the column for storing the sequence, a data sequence, the number of times a value is repeated, and the number of times the whole sequence of values is repeated.

- The utility can be accessed from Data > Generate Patterned Data > Arbitrary Data Sequence
- Store number pattern in: The column names in which random samples will be stored, separated by spaces (e.g. c1 c3 c7). For a continuous range of columns, specify using the first column, a dash, and the last column (e.g. C1-C30)
- Arbitrary data sequence: a sequence of values separated by white space; for a text string with internal space characters, enclose text values with double quotes("")
- Number of times to list each number: The number of times each term appears in the sequence (sequentially)
- Number of times to list each sequence: The number of times the sequence, from the first to the last value, is repeated

### Example

Given the inputs (Data sequence: "this is" 1 2 a b, Number of times to list each number: 2, Number of times to list each sequence: 2) produces the following sequence:
this is
this is
1
1
2
2
a
a
b
b
this is
this is
1
1
2
2
a
a
b
b