RE: Random query

How about adding a SERIAL column, making sure it populates from 1 up. Then generate your random number and select on the serial value. Cheap and easy Art Kagel wrote: > Colin McGrath wrote: > > > > If you have cursors available, you can do a select count(*), then > generate > > a random number between 1 and that count, and then do a "fetch absolute" > > to fetch just that one random record. > > To clarify this would require a SCROLL CURSOR which will perform the query > > by fetching the ENTIRE table into a temp table then the FETCH ABS will > position within that temp table. > > I suppose you could also use the FIRST N clause to limit the query to the > number of rows specified by the random number generator and FETCH them all > > to get to the last one or use a SCROLL CURSOR again and just FETCH LAST. > > Either way this is a pretty expensive way to get a single row. I don't > count these as practical solutions so I'll stick to me "No" answer. > > Art S. Kagel > > > Francois Merle wrote: > > > > > > Hi there: > > > > > > I have a table that contains only 1 column. A list of URLs. > > > > > > I'd like to get a random URL that is not the one passed as argument. > > > > > > Is it possible to do that with SQL instead of retrieving all the > records > > > and writing a program that picks one record randomly? > > > > > > Francois > > > > -- > > Colin