Random elements from Database

[gte806e]

What would be the most efficent way to access 4 random entries from a mySQL database and pull all information from them?

Right now im pulling all elements from the database into an array using mysql_fetch_array() then getting the sizeof() that array.

Then I was going to get 3 random numbers using the size of the array as the range.

This would be great if I could then get the elements from the array by index but is this possible to do without using a while statment on the result of the mysql_fetch_array() ?

$linkId = dbfconnect();
$SQL = "SELECT idNum, title FROM `listings` where catagory = '$catagory'";

$result = mysql_query($SQL);
$featureArray = mysql_fetch_array($result);

$range = $featureArray.sizeof();
$item1 = mt_rand (0, $range);
$item2 = mt_rand (0, $range);
$item3 = mt_rand (0, $range);
$item4 = mt_rand (0, $range);

Here's where im stuck. How can I take these random numbers and exstract all the information about a specific entry from $featureArray?

Would it be like this?

print($featureArray["$item1"]["title"]);

TIA

Jesse

[nnichols]

Make the most of the power of your db server. Try changing your query to the following -

$SQL = "SELECT idNum, title 
FROM listings 
WHERE catagory = '$catagory' 
ORDER BY RAND() 
LIMIT 3";

$result = mysql_query($SQL);

This is far more efficient.

Hope this helps 😉

[gte806e]

I knew there was something like this. I'm just not that involved with MySQL functions! Thanks a bunch!

Do you reccomend any resources that I could learn about mySQL functions and features?

Thanks again

Jesse

[nnichols]

I would suggest buying a good reference book - MySQL by Paul Dubois from New Riders is a great reference.