I have to admit that I had quite some trouble figuring out how I could get MySQL to return some random rows in a query. It was something I had to figure out for myself when I wanted to get a list of random web sites off GIDTopsites to place on these pages here.
As usual, everything fell nicely into place when I went out looking for the information and it was SO simple…
RAND()
Using rand()
, I just had to add it to my SQL query (in PHP) like this:
// random row, mysql example query in php $sql = "SELECT * FROM tablename WHERE somefield='something' ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 5"; // or, something like this $sql = "SELECT * FROM tablename ORDER BY RAND()";
That’s it, that’s all you have to do to get MySQL to return a set of random rows for you to do what you will with it.