Getting random rows from a database!

[MrSheen]

I have like 100's of entries in a database
i was wondering if i could get like a random 3 results from the database?

Let me know.
Thanks

[elwinh]

Maby something like this?

<?php
    $result = mysql_query("SELECT id, name FROM mytable");

    $row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_NUM)) {
    
    $num = count($row);
    
    $random1 = rand(1, $num);
    $random2 = rand(1, $num);
    $random3 = rand(1, $num);
    
    echo $row[$random1]; 
    echo $row[$random2]; 
    echo $row[$random3];

    mysql_free_result($result);
?>

[boogyman]

yes that is possible but you need to describe the fields in the database table.
the easiest would be to have an "id" for each record stored, and you create a script that will randomly select a number in the range then you would pull the info from that data, and repeat 2 more times

[elwinh]

isn't that almost what the script posted above does? It only dous'nt need a id. It uses "MYSQL_NUM".

[boogyman]

Maby something like this?

<?php

    $result = mysql_query("SELECT id, name FROM mytable");

    $row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_NUM)) {
    
    $num = count($row);
    
    $random1 = rand(1, $num);
    $random2 = rand(1, $num);
    $random3 = rand(1, $num);
    
    echo $row[$random1]; 
    echo $row[$random2]; 
    echo $row[$random3];

    mysql_free_result($result);
?>

rather than declaring each variable explicitly, you could also do a loop to make the code more generalized and save on debug / updating

<?php
    // Edit Query to specify what you wish to gather from the database
    $result = mysql_query("SELECT field(s) FROM mytable WHERE condition");

    $row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_NUM)) {
    $num = count($row);
    
        $int = 3;  //Number of Random Datacollections
        $random = array();     
        for($count=0; $count<$int; $count++)
       {
        $random[$count] = rand(1, $num);
       }

    mysql_free_result($result);
    
    // Prints out the results
    foreach($random as $rand => $val)
    {
            echo "Result ". $rand+1 .": ". $val;
     }

?>

would yield

Result 1: ______something_____
Result 2: ______something_____
Result 3: ______something_____
...
Result n+1: _____something_____

[Twey]

There's an easier way:

SELECT * FROM mytable ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 3;