how to select random data from table?

[jumpsalty]

how do i select random data from a table?

[Joan Garnet]

You can use the rand function combined with a query:

Code: Select all

<?php
$sql="select my_column from my_table'";
$result=mysql_query($sql,$db);
while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($result)){
      $total_num_rows = mysql_num_rows ( $result );
      $rand = ( rand ( 0, $total_num_rows ) );
      $random_data = $row [$rand];
      echo $random_data;
}
?>

[Oleg Butuzov]

selecrt * from sometable order by rand() limit 1

[jumpsalty]

the method that you use return all data and then we choose randomly from the data returned. problem if there is large data in the table

[Oleg Butuzov]

$n=10; //num of recordes

selecrt `yourrows` from sometable order by rand() limit $n

or use a few querys =)