Well, all I can say is that SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY id, RAND();
works just fine. It may not be "standard SQL", but MySQL handles it just fine. If you need to make it a table field, then you can do it this way: SELECT *, RAND() AS r FROM table ORDER BY id, r; I would hope that query would work in other database programs, too. ---John Holmes... > -----Original Message----- > From: Neil Zanella [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Sunday, May 12, 2002 9:13 PM > To: John Holmes > Cc: 'Jule'; PHP General Mailing List; MySQL Mailing List > Subject: RE: [PHP] random order > > > Only table field names are allowed after the ORDER BY clause in > standard SQL. The answer to your question is that SQL is not designed to > do that kind of thing. Rather, I would suggest computing a random > permutation of the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the PHP application prior to > constructing your SQL statement and passing it to MySQL. > > Furthermore, if your application does not support the generation of > random numbers (although I am pretty sure it does), you could always > retrieve random numbers from the MySQL built in function RAND() by > issuing SELECT RAND() statements (although this approach is more > inefficient as it consumes bandwidth). > > Neil > > On Sun, 12 May 2002, John Holmes wrote: > > > I don't know if this will work or not, but try > > > > SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY id, RAND(); > > > > That should keep all of the questions and answers together, but give a > > random order for the answers.. ?? Like I said, not exactly sure on it > > though. > > > > Best option, like someone else said, is to split this up into two > > tables. > > > > ---John Holmes... > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: Jule [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > > Sent: Sunday, May 12, 2002 1:28 PM > > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > Subject: Re: [PHP] random order > > > > > > hmm it got a little more complicated now, > > > i have a table with: id title question answer1 answer2 answer3 > > answer4. > > > how can i use all of those in a php page but only randomize the > > answers? > > > > > > so i get > > > > > > title title > > > > > > question question > > > > > > answer3 answer4 > > > answer2 answer1 > > > answer4 answer3 > > > answer1 answer2 > > > > > > any ideas? > > > thanks, > > > > > > Jule > > > On Sunday 12 May 2002 17:30, you wrote: > > > > Add on a LIMIT to restrict it to return a certain number of rows. > > > > > > > > If you had a table of say, 100 rows, and you wanted four random ones > > out > > > > of the 100, then you'd use this: > > > > > > > > SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 4; > > > > > > > > ---John Holmes... > > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > > > From: Jule [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > > > > Sent: Sunday, May 12, 2002 11:22 AM > > > > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > Subject: Re: [PHP] random order > > > > > > > > > > Thanks John, > > > > > I thought that that command only selected a random row.. > > > > > must've read wrong. > > > > > thanks. > > > > > > > > > > Jule > > > > > > > > > > On Sunday 12 May 2002 17:21, you wrote: > > > > > > Nothing to do with PHP... > > > > > > > > > > > > SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY RAND(); > > > > > > > > > > > > ---John Holmes... > > > > > > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > > > > > From: Jule [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > > > > > > Sent: Sunday, May 12, 2002 9:49 AM > > > > > > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > > Subject: [PHP] random order > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Hey guys and gals, > > > > > > > I have a problem: > > > > > > > I have a mysql databse with 4 rows, and each row (row1, row2, > > > > > > > > row3, > > > > > > > > > > and > > > > > > > > > > > > > row4) > > > > > > > contains a sentence. now i want these sentences to appear in > > > > > > > > random > > > > > > > > > > order: > > > > > > > instance: 1 2 etc. > > > > > > > row2 row4 > > > > > > > row4 row2 > > > > > > > row1 row1 > > > > > > > row3 row3 > > > > > > > > > > > > > > how do i go about that?? > > > > > > > any ideas apreciated. > > > > > > > thanks > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Jule > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > > > > > > > > > |\/\__________________________/\/| > > > > > > > | Jule Slootbeek | > > > > > > > | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | > > > > > > > | http://blindtheory.cjb.net | > > > > > > > | __________________________ | > > > > > > > |/\/ \/\| > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > > > > > > > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > > > > > |\/\__________________________/\/| > > > > > | Jule Slootbeek | > > > > > | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | > > > > > | http://blindtheory.cjb.net | > > > > > | __________________________ | > > > > > |/\/ \/\| > > > > > > -- > > > |\/\__________________________/\/| > > > | Jule Slootbeek | > > > | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | > > > | http://blindtheory.cjb.net | > > > | __________________________ | > > > |/\/ \/\| > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Before posting, please check: > > http://www.mysql.com/manual.php (the manual) > > http://lists.mysql.com/ (the list archive) > > > > To request this thread, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To unsubscribe, e-mail <mysql-unsubscribe- > [EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Trouble unsubscribing? Try: http://lists.mysql.com/php/unsubscribe.php > > -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
