problem with SELECT DISTINCT query

[heropage]

'm having the following table:

Table paragraph
ID | text | number

---

1|text1|1
2|text2|1
3|text3|1
4|text4|2
5|text5|2
6|text6|3
7|text7|3
8|text8|3
9|text9|3

I need to select 3 random rows that have DISTINCT number.

I use

SELECT DISTINCT number, id, text, number FROM paragraph ORDER BY rand() LIMIT 3

and

SELECT *
FROM paragraph
GROUP BY number
ORDER BY RAND( )

not working

[rulian]

"SELECT DISTINCT(field)...."

[Sxooter]

heropage wrote:

'm having the following table:

Table paragraph
ID | text | number

---

1|text1|1
2|text2|1
3|text3|1
4|text4|2
5|text5|2
6|text6|3
7|text7|3
8|text8|3
9|text9|3

I need to select 3 random rows that have DISTINCT number.

If you're only ever gonna have 1,2,3 as values you could use this:

select ID from paragraph where number=1 order by rand() limit 1
UNION
select ID from paragraph where number=2 order by rand() limit 1
UNION
select ID from paragraph where number=3 order by rand() limit 1

You could change it as needed by adding more select queries.

This is NOT an optimal solution, but it will work.