How to Select a Random Row from a SQL Database?

Selecting Random Records in SQL Databases

Database queries often target specific rows. But how do you efficiently retrieve a completely random row? The methods vary slightly across different database systems:

MySQL:

SELECT column FROM table
ORDER BY RAND()
LIMIT 1

PostgreSQL:

SELECT column FROM table
ORDER BY RANDOM()
LIMIT 1

Microsoft SQL Server:

SELECT TOP 1 column FROM table
ORDER BY NEWID()

IBM DB2:

SELECT column, RAND() as IDX
FROM table
ORDER BY IDX FETCH FIRST 1 ROWS ONLY

Oracle:

SELECT column FROM
( SELECT column FROM table
ORDER BY dbms_random.value )
WHERE rownum = 1

These examples demonstrate how to obtain a single random row. Remember to replace column and table with your actual column and table names.

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