Display random items from db

[nelsons]

Uh Oh. - I created a DB and used the record ID (auto-increment) to tag the items. Which is very cool when choosing a random of 5 items from it. Just do a random series of 5 unique numbers and pull them via ID. Case closed - off to lunch.

Which works great until someone removes a handful of records. Ouch.

Any good suggestions on how to approach this? The record pulls must be random (5 out of approximately 50 or so). Even if there are holes in the numbering ID sequence, -removed items in the middle of the 50.

[tensitY]

write a loop that gets 5 of the ids if it isnt there then have it pull another

if you need i can write the code

[nelsons]

Not sure how to handle the skips in sequence, would like to see how thats done - sure - and thanks.

[Bunkermaster]

select
whoyawant
from
yourtable
order by RAND()
limit 5

I generally let MySQL do its job
🆒

[nelsons]

Ive tried to do the random via mysql, and its a no go. Hit the mysql site and verified it there. It just wont operate.

Using mysql 3.23, so we should be good to go version wise.