random records?

[Anon]

any way to choose a random record from a given table?

[Anon]

I should elaborate a bit. My table contains photo names. There is no autoincremented id value or any other numerical value that is attached to each photo. So creating random numbers for the WHERE clause won't work.

[brandonschnell]

mysql:
select pict from table order by rand()

everything else:
select pict,rand() as random_row from table order by random_row

[gushy]

The second query would work in mysql. However the first is neater.

-- Nick Gushlow

[Anon]

select name from adventure where set_num = '1' order by rand()

This query works great, but then I add a limit:

select name from adventure where set_num = '1' order by rand() LIMIT 1

and I get an error. Is there something wrong with the limit syntax?

Thanks!

[gushy]

The manual will tell you that you need an offset.

ie.
SELECT * FROM table WHERE x = 1 ORDER BY rand() LIMIT 0,1

-- Nick Gushlow

[Anon]

Actually the offset is optional. I typed this query on the command line and it worked fine, it is phpMyadmin that is returning the error.