ORDER BY functions

[czukoman20]

can someone give me as many examples as to what you can use the ORDER BY Function to randomize the order.. Like rand(-what goes inside here)

 

what i'm looking for is an order by function that is a different randomization everytime its ordered out of the same datatable.

[pocobueno1388]

Like this

 

SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY rand()

[alecks]

you could do

 

$random = rand(1,2);
switch ($random) {
   case 1:
      $random = "DESC";
      break;
   case 2:
      $random = "ASC";
      break;
}

 

And then the query would be "SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY `id` ".$random."" (assuming there is an id column)

You could of course expand the random range and add more options

 

or actually

 

$random = rand(0,1);
$options = array("DESC","ASC");

 

"SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY `id` ".$options[$random].""

[czukoman20]

Ok well i just thought of something.. how would i find out how many rows are in my datatable and use that to distinguish the rand(0, rows in table)

Then i wouldn't have to update it everytime the table changes

 

[phpSensei]

Ok well i just thought of something.. how would i find out how many rows are in my datatable and use that to distinguish the rand(0, rows in table)

Then i wouldn't have to update it everytime the table changes

 

 

use mysql_num_rows($query);

 

 

[czukoman20]

so then i would have to have two queries one to call the table.. and the other to put the num rows variable into action?

 

[phpSensei]

so then i would have to have two queries one to call the table.. and the other to put the num rows variable into action?

 

 

You could use 1 variable, and do both actions.

 

 

[czukoman20]

now im confused as to how to do this. could u possibly give an example please

 

thanks

 

[phpSensei]

now im confused as to how to do this. could u possibly give an example please

 

thanks

 

 

Just post your code and I will set it up for you.

 

Then I will explain what i did.

[czukoman20]

ok here is my code

 

//Here we count the number of results
//Edit $data to be your query
$data = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE userid_2 > 0 ORDER BY rand()") or die(mysql_error());

 

thats probably all you need out of it right?

[pocobueno1388]

<?php

$data = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE userid_2 > 0 ORDER BY rand()") or die(mysql_error());
$num_rows = mysql_num_rows($data);

echo $num_rows; //will echo how many rows were returned from the query

?>

[czukoman20]

ok well my problem is deeper than this now that i have found out.. and im just lost now.. .. . ...  ugh>!? ! and this has to go with my random pagination. so if you guys are looking at this one.. then can you please read the topic that is random pagination. because that is the base of what this problem is thanks.