random data from database

benracer

Hi,
i have a code that creates a a loop and displays data from the database.
what i need to do is to get the one loop to display on 2 rows.
here is the code so far that displays on one line, i cant just duplicate this as i dont want the same data (items) to be displayed on the home page at the same time....

<tr>
                <td align="center" valign="top" class="style2"><?php

mysql_connect("")or die("cannot connect server "); 
mysql_select_db("")or die("cannot select DB");

$sql="SELECT * FROM items ORDER BY rand() LIMIT 5";
$result=mysql_query($sql);

while($rows=mysql_fetch_array($result)){
?>
                  <table border="0" align="center" style="max-height:100; max-width:100">
                    <tr>
                      <td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="<? echo $rows['image']; ?>" target="_blank"><img src="<? echo $rows['image']; ?>" alt="<? 
echo "#";
echo $rows['code']; 
echo " - ";
echo $rows['name']; 
?>" border="0" class="mediumimage"/></a></td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr>
                      <td align="left" valign="middle"><div align="center" class="style18"><strong>#<? echo $rows['code']; ?></strong><em> - <? echo $rows['name']; ?></em></div></td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr>
                      <td align="left" valign="middle"><div align="center"><strong>&pound;<? echo $rows['price']; ?></strong></div></td>
                    </tr>
                  </table>                  </td>
                <td align="center" valign="top" class="style2"><?
}
mysql_close(); //close database
?></td>
              </tr>

troybtj

Off the top of my head, add the image name to an array, you could query one at a time in the if/else, or grab a large enough random sample that you would be able to display 5 with a very minimal chance of a duplicate, say 75-ish

<?php
for ($i = 1; $i <= 5; $i++)
{
if (in_array($name,$imagesdisplayed))
{
//query another random or skip to next row here
else
{
$imagesdisplayed[$i]=$name
///run your display routine here
}  /end if if-else
} // end of for loop
?>

benracer

thanks,
all of my items have an id from 1 to xamount of products.
is it possible to query the database so it can only select the items by rand() between certain id's, e.g between 1 and 15?
Thanks in advance... 😉

troybtj

Yes.

SELECT * from items where itemid > 15 and itemid < 100 ORDER BY rand() LIMIT 5;

Works on mysql command line, so should work fine in a PHP query as well.

benracer

Thanks A Lot - Great Help,
also is there any way to exclude a certain id value e.g
exclude id 20???

Sxooter

where id between 1 and 15 and id not in (5,6,7,12)