SQL - RAND Function
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SQL has a RAND function that can be invoked to produce random numbers between 0 and 1 −
SQL> SELECT RAND( ), RAND( ), RAND( ); +------------------+-----------------+------------------+ | RAND( ) | RAND( ) | RAND( ) | +------------------+-----------------+------------------+ | 0.45464584925645 | 0.1824410643265 | 0.54826780459682 | +------------------+-----------------+------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)
When invoked with an integer argument, RAND( ) uses that value to seed the random number generator. Each time you seed the generator with a given value, RAND( ) will produce a repeatable series of numbers −
SQL> SELECT RAND(1), RAND( ), RAND( ); +------------------+------------------+------------------+ | RAND(1 ) | RAND( ) | RAND( ) | +------------------+------------------+------------------+ | 0.18109050223705 | 0.75023211143001 | 0.20788908117254 | +------------------+------------------+------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)
You can use ORDER BY RAND() to randomize a set of rows or values as follows −
To understand ORDER BY RAND() function, consider an employee_tbl table, which is having the following records −
SQL> SELECT * FROM employee_tbl; +------+------+------------+--------------------+ | id | name | work_date | daily_typing_pages | +------+------+------------+--------------------+ | 1 | John | 2007-01-24 | 250 | | 2 | Ram | 2007-05-27 | 220 | | 3 | Jack | 2007-05-06 | 170 | | 3 | Jack | 2007-04-06 | 100 | | 4 | Jill | 2007-04-06 | 220 | | 5 | Zara | 2007-06-06 | 300 | | 5 | Zara | 2007-02-06 | 350 | +------+------+------------+--------------------+ 7 rows in set (0.00 sec)
Now, use the following commands −
SQL> SELECT * FROM employee_tbl ORDER BY RAND(); +------+------+------------+--------------------+ | id | name | work_date | daily_typing_pages | +------+------+------------+--------------------+ | 5 | Zara | 2007-06-06 | 300 | | 3 | Jack | 2007-04-06 | 100 | | 3 | Jack | 2007-05-06 | 170 | | 2 | Ram | 2007-05-27 | 220 | | 4 | Jill | 2007-04-06 | 220 | | 5 | Zara | 2007-02-06 | 350 | | 1 | John | 2007-01-24 | 250 | +------+------+------------+--------------------+ 7 rows in set (0.01 sec) SQL> SELECT * FROM employee_tbl ORDER BY RAND(); +------+------+------------+--------------------+ | id | name | work_date | daily_typing_pages | +------+------+------------+--------------------+ | 5 | Zara | 2007-02-06 | 350 | | 2 | Ram | 2007-05-27 | 220 | | 3 | Jack | 2007-04-06 | 100 | | 1 | John | 2007-01-24 | 250 | | 4 | Jill | 2007-04-06 | 220 | | 3 | Jack | 2007-05-06 | 170 | | 5 | Zara | 2007-06-06 | 300 | +------+------+------------+--------------------+ 7 rows in set (0.00 sec)
sql-useful-functions.htm
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