diplaying a certain row

[mabmichael]

Hi
Semi - know enough to be dangerous- newby here 😃
I want to display a random field from a database.
I have this (names changed to protect the innocent

$categ = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table WHERE field= 1")
    or die("SELECT Error: ".mysql_error());
$num_rows = mysql_num_rows($categ);
srand ((double)microtime()*1000000);
$randomnum = rand(1, $num_rows); 

this works well I get the number of rows, and then a random number from 1 to the # of rows.

Now: how do I select that index from the array??
(and also, should my random number be from 1 to $num_rows or from 0 to ($num_rows - 1) ???)
I can display ALL of the rows by using

While ($categs = mysql_fetch_array($categ)): 
		echo $categs['message']."<BR>";

endwhile; 

I had tried using and index, and it worked great... until someone deleted a row.

I know this should be easy . . . . . .

[subwayman]

You need to set the pointer to the row you want before fetching the data:

if (mysql_data_seek($categ,$randomnum)) {

$row = mysql_fetch_array($categ);
echo ....

} else {

// row does not exist

}

[subwayman]

Also...

If you are only needing one row then you could use the select query to return just the row you want using LIMIT. LIMIT 23, 1 will return the 23rd row only.

[mabmichael]

Thanks!

Worked great!

and yes. .. the array needed to be from 0 to numrows-1

:bemused: