Select a fixed number of random records from a MySQL table?

For random records, you can use rand() method. To set the number of records, use the LIMIT −

select *from yourTableName order by rand() limit numberOfRecords;

Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable    -> (    -> LastName varchar(100)    -> ); Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.51 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Brown'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.20 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Smith'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Taylor'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.10 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Miller'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.15 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Johnson'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.20 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable;

Output

This will produce the following output −

+----------+ | LastName | +----------+ | Brown    | | Smith    | | Taylor   | | Miller | | Johnson | +----------+ 5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to select fixed number of random records −

mysql> select *from DemoTable order by rand() limit 4;

Output

This will produce the following output −

+----------+ | LastName | +----------+ | Brown | | Miller | | Johnson | | Taylor | +----------+ 4 rows in set (0.03 sec)