OT: MySQL Question

Hello Everyone,

I am building an application that will need to select 6 random records from
a MySQL table. I'm not quite sure how to do this. Currently, I'm doing it
this way: each record has a unique ID that numbers from 1 to X. I get the
MAX number from the unique ID field and assign a PHP variable a random
number between 1 and the MAX number. Then I just do a SELECT * FROM table
WHERE uniqueID = $random_var. I put this in a 6X executing loop. But this
isn't elegant and I want to replace it with the correct way. Can anyone help
me out?

Thanks,
Anthony Saffer

--
Professional Software and Web Application Development
www.safferconsulting.com

On 13-Jul-2003, "Anthony M. Saffer" <anthony@nospam.safferconsulting.com>
wrote:

> I am building an application that will need to select 6 random records
> from
> a MySQL table. I'm not quite sure how to do this. Currently, I'm doing it
> this way: each record has a unique ID that numbers from 1 to X. I get the
> MAX number from the unique ID field and assign a PHP variable a random
> number between 1 and the MAX number. Then I just do a SELECT * FROM table
> WHERE uniqueID = $random_var. I put this in a 6X executing loop. But this
> isn't elegant and I want to replace it with the correct way. Can anyone
> help
> me out?

You are making it way too hard, try this:
SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 6
You don't need id numbers or multiple selects.

--
Tom Thackrey
www.creative-light.com

"Tom Thackrey" <tomnr@creative-light.com> wrote in message
news:HynQa.983$L%7.357@newssvr23.news.prodigy.com. ..
>
> On 13-Jul-2003, "Anthony M. Saffer" <anthony@nospam.safferconsulting.com>
> wrote:
>
> > I am building an application that will need to select 6 random records
> > from
> > a MySQL table. I'm not quite sure how to do this. Currently, I'm doing
it
> > this way: each record has a unique ID that numbers from 1 to X. I get
the
> > MAX number from the unique ID field and assign a PHP variable a random
> > number between 1 and the MAX number. Then I just do a SELECT * FROM
table
> > WHERE uniqueID = $random_var. I put this in a 6X executing loop. But
this
> > isn't elegant and I want to replace it with the correct way. Can anyone
> > help
> > me out?
>
> You are making it way too hard, try this:
> SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 6
> You don't need id numbers or multiple selects.

Thank you very much! I WAS making it way too hard.

Anthony Saffer

On 15-Jul-2003, Job <jobjes@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Tom Thackrey wrote:
> > On 13-Jul-2003, "Anthony M. Saffer"
> > <anthony@nospam.safferconsulting.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >
> > You are making it way too hard, try this:
> > SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 6
> > You don't need id numbers or multiple selects.
> >
>
>
> Hi, was thinking about this myself, but am wondering:
> This returns 6 items from table, but are these 6 unique returns, or can
> this also result in duplicate returns?

No. Think of it as: assign each row a random number, sort by that number and
pick the first 6 rows.

--
Tom Thackrey
www.creative-light.com