Re: How to optimize select of random record in DB ?

* -{ Rene Brehmer }- <metalbunny@metalbunny.net>: > I made this code to pick a random record from a changeable number of > records in a given table. > I'm just curious if any of the more awake coders out there can see a way to > optimize this for better performance, since there's several other DB > queries on the same page. > > $records = mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(*) AS count FROM persons") or > die('Unable to get record count<br>'.mysql_error()); > $totalcount = mysql_result($records,0) - 1; > $rndrecord = rand(0,$totalcount); > $personquery = mysql_query("SELECT personID FROM persons LIMIT > $rndrecord,1") or die('Unable to get random record<br>'.mysql_error()); > $personID = mysql_result($personquery,0); Since you're using mysql, why not use the RAND() function? $sql = "SELECT personID FROM persons ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1"; $query = mysql_query($sql) or die("Unable to get random record"); $personID = mysql_result($query, 0); I've used this quite a bit -- much easier than using PHP to do it. -- Matthew Weier O'Phinney | mailto:matthew@garden.org Webmaster and IT Specialist | http://www.garden.org National Gardening Association | http://www.kidsgardening.com 802-863-5251 x156 | http://nationalgardenmonth.org