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:

<code class="language-sql">SELECT column FROM table
ORDER BY RAND()
LIMIT 1</code>

PostgreSQL:

<code class="language-sql">SELECT column FROM table
ORDER BY RANDOM()
LIMIT 1</code>

Microsoft SQL Server:

<code class="language-sql">SELECT TOP 1 column FROM table
ORDER BY NEWID()</code>

IBM DB2:

<code class="language-sql">SELECT column, RAND() as IDX
FROM table
ORDER BY IDX FETCH FIRST 1 ROWS ONLY</code>

Oracle:

<code class="language-sql">SELECT column FROM
( SELECT column FROM table
ORDER BY dbms_random.value )
WHERE rownum = 1</code>

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

The above is the detailed content of How to Select a Random Row from a SQL Database?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!