Re: Select a random record in SQL

On 2/16/06, John Joiner <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> I'm not sure about the duplicates. I've experienced that as well, but I
> typically use something like 'INT(RAND() * 1000' or something like that so
> I
> don't get that floating point number.


Just doing a "select rand() from cumor" gives distinctively unique floating
point values.

If I leave out the Order By rand() clause from the original statement (where
rand() was in both the select and order by clauses), again, I get
distinctively unique floating point values.

But a "select rand() from cumor
            order by RAND()"  gives the duplicates.  Interesting.

You may or may not be aware that each time you invoke the RAND() function,
> you should be getting a different random number. So, if you specify RAND()
> in the field list and RAND() in the order by, the random number returned
> in
> the field list will not necessarily be the same as the random number used
> to
> order the records. At least this has been my experience.


That makes sense.

- Dan