When we use the RAND() function with the ORDER BY and LIMIT clauses in a query, MySQL returns a different set of rows or values every time. To understand it, consider a table "Employee" with the following records -
mysql> Select * from Employee; +----+--------+--------+ | ID | Name | Salary | +----+--------+--------+ | 1 | Gaurav | 50000 | | 2 | Rahul | 20000 | | 3 | Advik | 25000 | | 4 | Aarav | 65000 | | 5 | Ram | 20000 | | 6 | Mohan | 30000 | | 7 | Aryan | NULL | | 8 | Vinay | NULL | +----+--------+--------+ 8 rows in set (0.00 sec)
Now, the following query will use RAND() function and use both ORDER BY and LIMIT clauses in the query to return random Different set of values or rows -
mysql> Select * from employee ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 4; +----+-------+--------+ | ID | Name | Salary | +----+-------+--------+ | 5 | Ram | 20000 | | 4 | Aarav | 65000 | | 6 | Mohan | 30000 | | 8 | Vinay | NULL | +----+-------+--------+ 4 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql> Select * from employee ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 4; +----+--------+--------+ | ID | Name | Salary | +----+--------+--------+ | 6 | Mohan | 30000 | | 8 | Vinay | NULL | | 2 | Rahul | 20000 | | 1 | Gaurav | 50000 | +----+--------+--------+ 4 rows in set (0.03 sec) mysql> Select * from employee ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 4; +----+-------+--------+ | ID | Name | Salary | +----+-------+--------+ | 3 | Advik | 25000 | | 8 | Vinay | NULL | | 7 | Aryan | NULL | | 5 | Ram | 20000 | +----+-------+--------+ 4 rows in set (0.00 sec)
As you can see from the above result set, every time you run the query, it returns a randomly different set of values or rows.
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