When we use MySQL ORDER BY clause with RAND() function then the result set would have the shuffled set of rows. In other words, the result set would be in a random order. To understand it considers a table ‘Employee’ having 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 query below will use ORDER BT RAND() to shuffle the set of rows in the result set −
mysql> Select * from Employee ORDER BY RAND(); +----+--------+--------+ | ID | Name | Salary | +----+--------+--------+ | 4 | Aarav | 65000 | | 1 | Gaurav | 50000 | | 3 | Advik | 25000 | | 7 | Aryan | NULL | | 6 | Mohan | 30000 | | 8 | Vinay | NULL | | 5 | Ram | 20000 | | 2 | Rahul | 20000 | +----+--------+--------+ 8 rows in set (0.00 sec)