Seemingly... I havent sat and tested just how 'random' it actually is but it seems to always be random enough for my purposes.
The only 'gotcha' I can think of when selecting more than 1 record at a time with it... is that they may always be 3 sequential records in the database... but if you ran 3 separate queries...or ordered them with random columns and directions like I posted before... problem solved It generates unique ids for the records and orders by that... you'd have to get a better explanation of what it's actually doing from someone else though :) But try a test... just select something and order your query by newid() Refresh it a few times... you might be surprised :) ..:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:. Bobby Hartsfield http://acoderslife.com -----Original Message----- From: Stuart Kidd [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, December 19, 2005 12:43 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: Random Numbers Yes, it's MS-SQL. I can sort them but sometimes there may be 100 entries and i'd like to pick random numbers not just the top 3. When you mean newid - does that do a random pick? Thanks, Saturday ---------------------------------------- From: "Bobby Hartsfield" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, December 19, 2005 12:39 PM To: CF-Talk <[email protected]> Subject: RE: Random Numbers What database are you using? In SQL server you can select the top 3 and order by newid() I'm pretty sure you can do that in MySQL too... I'm just not sure if it's actually 'newid()' in MySQL ----- Else, I can think of a couple different ways to do it.... The simplest way I can think of... Get a list of all the IDS from the table So you'd have a list of IDS like "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9" Then loop from 1 to however many records you want while grabbing a random ID from the list each time and removing it from the list to ensure it doesn't get selected again... thisposition))> When its done, #randomids# will hold 3 random ids then you just select * from table where id in (listofids) That's all untested of course and knowing me... there's a typo somwhere... If there are a ton of records and you don't want to grab all the ids everytime... just grab half or something and randomly order them by different columns and/or asc/desc Eg... Select ID from table Orderby #orderby# #orderdirection# ....:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:. Bobby Hartsfield http://acoderslife.com -----Original Message----- From: Stuart Kidd [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, December 19, 2005 11:32 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Random Numbers Hi guys, I'm trying to write an app which will choose three random numbers for a competition based on how many etnries there are. I'm having problems trying to work out a way not to choose the same number twice, is there a way to do that which will fit into my CFLOOP structure? Or is there a better way to do it? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Logware (www.logware.us): a new and convenient web-based time tracking application. Start tracking and documenting hours spent on a project or with a client with Logware today. Try it for free with a 15 day trial account. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=67 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:227281 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
