Reputation: 471

Selecting Random Result from MySQL

I wanted to randomly select results from mysql database with this code:

$data = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM people ORDER BY RANDOM() LIMIT 4") or die(mysql_error());

I got an error message: FUNCTION members.RANDOM does not exist

Is there something I'm not adding or doing right here?

Thanks for your asistance.

Upvotes: 7

Answers (5)

Reputation: 14048

This is a very good source of advice for efficiently retrieving random records from a table with MySQL.

You might want to check it out.

Upvotes: 1

Reputation: 3079

Since it's MySQL, you need to use RAND() instead of RANDOM().

Upvotes: 1

Reputation: 4449

MySQL uses RAND() instead of RANDOM().

Upvotes: 2

Reputation: 270775

You need ORDER BY RAND()

$data = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM people ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 4") or die(mysql_error());

Upvotes: 8

Reputation: 5136

The function name you're looking for is RAND().

Upvotes: 15