randomly select 5 different values from 6

ilovethisgame

hi every1,
am trying to write a select statement that would randomly select 5 different values from lets say 6 of them in total.
the reason is that im sending emails to users but i dont want the same email to show more then once.
could anyone help me out on this one?
thanx in advance

Installer

This should work:

$total = count($emails);
$select = 5;

$numbers = array();
while (count($numbers) < $select) {
    $num = mt_rand(1, $total);
    if (!in_array($num, $numbers)) {
        $numbers[] = $num;
    }
}

foreach ($numbers as $value) {
    send_email($emails[$numbers[$value]]);
}

Edit: Arrays start at 0 index (I forgot :o ). Replace this:

    $num = mt_rand(1, $total);

with this:

    $num = mt_rand(0, $total - 1);

ilovethisgame

for ($i=0; $i<$num_emails; $i++)
{
$query = "SELECT * FROM $table ORDER BY rand() LIMIT 1";
$result_query = mysql_query($query);
if(!$result_query)
die('Could not query: ' .mysql_error());
$info = mysql_fetch_array($result_query);
$unik[$i] = $info['email'];

	$q = "SELECT * FROM $table";
	$result_q = mysql_query($q);
	if(!$result_q)
		die('Cant query: '.mysql_error());
	$numOfRows = mysql_num_rows($result_q);

	for($j=0; $j<$numOfRows; $j++)
	{
		if($unik[$i] == $unik[$j])
		{
			$result_query = mysql_query($query);
			if(!$result_query)
				die('Could not query: ' .mysql_error());
			$info = mysql_fetch_array($result_query);
			$unik[$j] = $info['email'];  
		}			
	}		
	$emails[$i] = $unik[$i];
}

this is what i have so far but it doesnt seem to work...
am pretty new to PHP and to this forum so further help would be very appreciated...
the way you wrote it is very sofisticated to me and i cant realyl understand whats going on in the coding
could you help me out with mine? anyone?
thanx

ilovethisgame

thanx i figured it out...
its working now
this part helped alot
while (count($numbers) < $select) {
$num = mt_rand(1, $total);
if (!in_array($num, $numbers)) {
$numbers[] = $num;
}
}