How can I retrive random records ?

The rand() function is available in sql server 6.5 also. So, the select statemnt should work there too.

I confirm that Rand() exists in SQLServer 7, but i think it sorts by a specific column, determined by the Rand() value

'SELECT * FROM tablename ORDER BY RAND()'

What I meant was the above statement does not retrieve random order ..It  retrieves in a fixed order .. DO we have to seed the RAND function ??

ORDER BY specifies a column. This will just return results sorted in ascending order by the column that gets picked in the RAND function.

I think you want to return data randomly. My past experience is that the RAND() function in set processing, always returns the same number for all rows, so if you wanted to create a column that contained your random sort sequence number, they'd all be the same value. I'm not sure if that's still true since I haven't tried it in SQL Server 7.

David

You can use a seed with the Rand function, for instance:

DECLARE @seedstr varchar(30), @seed int, @rand_number float
SELECT @seedstr = CONVERT(varchar(30), GetDate(), 114)
SELECT @seed = CAST(RIGHT(@seedstr, 3) AS int) * CAST(SUBSTRING(@seedstr, 7, 2) AS int)
SELECT @rand_number = RAND(@seed)

 I've used the RAND function on sets of records in SQL 7 and from my experience you'll get the same value for each row.  The only way I know to really do this is ugly and that is to use a cursor or something to loop through the records updating a field to a random number.  Then do the select.  Not terriably effecient.

You can do an ORDER BY SomeColumn % @random_value

('%' is the modulo operator). Make sure that the SomeColumn contains a lot of different values (preferably a unique numerical column) and that the @random_value is truly random and an integer somewhere between 0 and about .05 * MAX(SomeColumn). Use the code I gave above to get a good starter, and then use something like this:

DECLARE @random_value int
SELECT @random_value = (((@rand_number * 100) % 20) / 100) * MAX(SomeColumn) FROM YourTable

to get the random value between 0 and .05 * MAX(SomeColumn)

This will give you a fairly different sorted set each time. Not truly random because of the modulo operation, but random enough to fool any human being. You can experiment with different values for the '% 20' operation above to increase or decrease randomness (experiment with values from 1 to 99). The best thing would be to take a random value here too, but that might be a bit over the top.

Jeremy D

Im using Ms-SQL server 6.5

CAST was not working

and % ( modulo) was NOT working using a float type ..

So I used the following SQl statements .

I do get a random arrangement of results ..

But as you said NOT truly random ..

Results get repeated often ..


DECLARE @rand_val float

SELECT @rand_val = RAND( (DATEPART(mm, GETDATE()) * 100000 )
+ (DATEPART(ss, GETDATE()) * 1000 )
+ DATEPART(ms, GETDATE()) )

DECLARE @temp int

SELECT @temp = (@rand_val * 100)

SELECT * FROM table1 ORDER BY @temp % TESTCOL


Is there anyway to make it more random ??

>> CAST was not working
In 6.5, use CONVERT, same result.

>> and % ( modulo) was NOT working using a float type ..
Sorry, you have to convert it to an int first, forgot.

What you're doing now is @random_value modulo TESTCOL. Assuming that TESTCOL holds unique values, my gut feeling says that TESTCOL modulo @random_value is going to give better results, but that's just a gut feeling.

I would still try to use my previous example if I were you though. Here it is (improved) for 6.5:

DECLARE @seedstr varchar(30), @seed int, @rand_number int, @rand_value int, @rand_moderator int
SELECT @seedstr = CONVERT(varchar(30), GetDate(), 114)
SELECT @seed = CONVERT(int, RIGHT(@seedstr, 3)) * CONVERT(int, SUBSTRING(@seedstr, 7, 2))
SELECT @rand_number = CONVERT(int, RAND(@seed) * 100)
SELECT @rand_moderator = CONVERT(int, 25 + (RAND() * 50))
SELECT @rand_value = ((@rand_number % @rand_moderator) / 100) * MAX(TESTCOL) FROM table1
/* Now for the actual select statement */
SELECT * FROM table1 ORDER BY TESTCOL % @rand_value
/* The next example will be even more random, but much slower on large tables */
SELECT * FROM table1 ORDER BY TESTCOL % @rand_value, TESTCOL % @rand_number

Thanks for your effort

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You're welcome.

It's in your mailbox.

Hi Jeremy, really good answer.. been trying to work this out for ages.
Cheers, Neil

Glad I could be of help.