PHP and MYSQL get random row in table

Question

Hello I have the following code which returns the amount of rows in a table and the picks a random number between 1 and the amount of rows. I want to be able to get the row in the MySQL table that corresponds to the random number. So if the number is two, I want to get the second row down. Here is my code so far:

$query = mysql_query("SELECT count(*) as total from videos");
$result = mysql_fetch_array($query);
$TotalCount =  $result['total'];

$RandRow = mt_rand(1,$TotalCount);

I do have a id column but all the id's are not in order it goes like this for example: 4, 27, 43, 2, 18, 109, So i cant use that. How can I get a row in a table that corresponds to my random number?

DSharp · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-12 15:51:23Z

1

You want one random row out of your table, right? Then you could use ORDER BY RAND() in your query and LIMIT 1. It sorts - surprise - randomly and only returns one dataset.

e.g.

$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM videos ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1");

So you just have to do one query.

answered Nov 12, 2016 at 15:51

DSharp

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Parth Mahida · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-12 15:48:22Z

0

$query = mysql_query("SELECT id from videos"); 
$ids = array()
While($row=mysql_fetch_array($query)){
$ids[] =$row['id']
}
$RandRow = array_rand($ids,1);

You can fetch all rows ids as an array and select a random one from array by array_rand

answered Nov 12, 2016 at 15:48

Parth Mahida

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