Steve,

If you had a database that did not have a keyed field, what
would be the best way to request a random record?

I've already figured a way to generate a random number from
one to the number of records in the database. But I'm not sure that's
going to here.

Any ideas?

Regards,



Fred

On Sun, 10 Feb 2008 01:36:05 +0100, Fred Atkinson <fatkinson@mishmash.com>
wrote:

> Steve,
>
> If you had a database that did not have a keyed field, what
> would be the best way to request a random record?

SELECT .... ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1
--
Rik Wasmus

"Fred Atkinson" <fatkinson@mishmash.com> wrote in message
news:1khsq3p3grqhtgepom2g43gvunkbimpedd@4ax.com...
> Steve,
>
> If you had a database that did not have a keyed field, what
> would be the best way to request a random record?
>
> I've already figured a way to generate a random number from
> one to the number of records in the database. But I'm not sure that's
> going to here.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Regards,
>
>
>
> Fred

What is a non-keyed database? Do you mean no primary key or no indexes?

Evan

On Sat, 9 Feb 2008 20:22:18 -0500, "Evan Keel"
<evankeel@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

>
>"Fred Atkinson" <fatkinson@mishmash.com> wrote in message
>news:1khsq3p3grqhtgepom2g43gvunkbimpedd@4ax.com.. .
>> Steve,
>>
>> If you had a database that did not have a keyed field, what
>> would be the best way to request a random record?
>>
>> I've already figured a way to generate a random number from
>> one to the number of records in the database. But I'm not sure that's
>> going to here.
>>
>> Any ideas?
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>>
>>
>> Fred
>
>What is a non-keyed database? Do you mean no primary key or no indexes?
>
>Evan
>
Neither.

I just want to randomly grab a record out of the database.

Regards,



Fred

On Sun, 10 Feb 2008 01:45:56 +0100, "Rik Wasmus"
<luiheidsgoeroe@hotmail.com> wrote:

>SELECT .... ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1

Thank you,

That worked BEAUTIFULLY.

Regards,



Fred

Fred Atkinson wrote:
> On Sat, 9 Feb 2008 20:22:18 -0500, "Evan Keel"
> <evankeel@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>> "Fred Atkinson" <fatkinson@mishmash.com> wrote in message
>> news:1khsq3p3grqhtgepom2g43gvunkbimpedd@4ax.com...
>>> Steve,
>>>
>>> If you had a database that did not have a keyed field, what
>>> would be the best way to request a random record?
>>>
>>> I've already figured a way to generate a random number from
>>> one to the number of records in the database. But I'm not sure that's
>>> going to here.
>>>
>>> Any ideas?
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Fred
>> What is a non-keyed database? Do you mean no primary key or no indexes?
>>
>> Evan
>>
> Neither.
>
> I just want to randomly grab a record out of the database.
>
> Regards,
>
>
>
> Fred
>

Fred,

It should be very rare you don't have a primary key on a table (except,
perhaps, for a many-to-many link table, but even that typically has a
primary key).

You almost always need a way to uniquely identify a row in a table
should you need to update or delete it.

--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attglobal.net
==================

On Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:03:59 -0500, Jerry Stuckle
<jstucklex@attglobal.net> wrote:

>Fred,
>
>It should be very rare you don't have a primary key on a table (except,
>perhaps, for a many-to-many link table, but even that typically has a
>primary key).
>
>You almost always need a way to uniquely identify a row in a table
>should you need to update or delete it.

I do have a way to identify the row. It is a callsign. It's
almost unique except that callsigns like W5YI have two different URLs
in them (www.w5yi.com and www.w5yi.net). In that case, there are two
entries for the call.

Thanks for your feedback, Jerry, as always.

Regards,




Fred

Fred Atkinson wrote:
> On Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:03:59 -0500, Jerry Stuckle
> <jstucklex@attglobal.net> wrote:
>
>> Fred,
>>
>> It should be very rare you don't have a primary key on a table (except,
>> perhaps, for a many-to-many link table, but even that typically has a
>> primary key).
>>
>> You almost always need a way to uniquely identify a row in a table
>> should you need to update or delete it.
>
> I do have a way to identify the row. It is a callsign. It's
> almost unique except that callsigns like W5YI have two different URLs
> in them (www.w5yi.com and www.w5yi.net). In that case, there are two
> entries for the call.
>
> Thanks for your feedback, Jerry, as always.
>
> Regards,
>
>
>
>
> Fred
>

Fred,

Almost is not the same thing.

For instance, what happens if you change the w4yi.net to w4yi.com in the
table? How can you differentiate between the two?

I don't know what else is in the rest of your tables, but if that's a
link table (the only two things are the call sign and the url), chances
are the combination of the two should be the primary key (will keep you
from having duplicates).


--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attglobal.net
==================