RE: [PHP] Randomly select 5 records from a db

This is what I used ( when I had the exactly same question ) : function rand_num_array($count) { $stand_a = array(); $rand_a = array(); for( $i = 0; $i < $count; $i++ ) $stand_a[$i] = $i; $rand_max = $count; for( $i = 0; $i < $count; $i++ ) { $rand_index = rand(0, $rand_max); if( $rand_index == $rand_max ) $rand_index = $rand_max - 1; $rand_a[$i] = $stand_a[$rand_index]; for( $j = $rand_index; $j < $rand_max - 1; $j++ ) $stand_a[$j] = $stand_a[$j + 1]; $rand_max--; } return $rand_a; } And in your connection: if(!$id || !isset($array_ra)) { $array_ra = array(); $array_ra = rand_num_array($v_mysql->Num); } while( list($rand_key, $rand_val) = each($array_ra)) { $v_mysql->seek( $rand_val ); $v_mysql->fetch_record(); ..... } Sorry I use a class for the mysql database, but I hope you will figure out how to change it into "your way" The $array_ra is registered by sessions, so in case you do something on the page and it has to be refreshed your data will not be resorted again. It is sorted randomly only in case you access it for the first time (makes no sense to do it twice) Id is assigned only when someone selects a record, so also in this case the data remains in order you saw it first time. See www.j-door.com/experts.html to understand what I am talking about, refresh the staff few times and see the differences. Cheers!! P.S: my need for random sorting was that when we sale a place on our website our clients often asked : "here will we be placed , on top or at the bottom? " So I decided to answer: "It will depend on your luck" -----Original Message----- From: Ben Weinberger [mailto:ben@digitalsmiths.com] Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2000 7:11 AM To: php-general@lists.php.net Subject: [PHP] Randomly select 5 records from a db Hi~ I am constructing part of a PHP4 page that I would like to randomly select 5 records from my MySQL db and display them. I know how to do the standard selects and display the data, but nothing random. The database lists benefits of being a member of our association, and we would like to display different ones each time the query is performed-- is there a way to randomly query the db for 5 records? I tried using the following but it didn't work.... $sql= "SELECT * from meminfo where type='bene'"; $result= mysql_query($sql); while ($myrow= mysql_fetch_array($result)) { $benefits=$myrow["title"]; print "$benefits<BR>"; //this is just to test to make sure it's pulling the data I want srand ((double) microtime() * 10000000); $input = array ("$benefits", 5); $rand_keys = array_rand ($input); print $input[$rand_keys[0]]."\n"; print $input[$rand_keys[2]]."\n"; print $input[$rand_keys[3]]."\n"; print $input[$rand_keys[4]]."\n"; print $input[$rand_keys[5]]."\n"; } Thanks, -Ben -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, e-mail: php-general-unsubscribe@lists.php.net For additional commands, e-mail: php-general-help@lists.php.net To contact the list administrators, e-mail: php-list-admin@lists.php.net