For this, you can use ORDER BY RAND() with LIMIT. Let us first create a −
mysql> create table DemoTable1426 -> ( -> FirstName varchar(20) -> ); Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.59 sec)
Insert some records in the table using insert −
mysql> insert into DemoTable1426 values('John'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.17 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable1426 values('Adam'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.10 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable1426 values('Robert'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.12 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable1426 values('David'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.12 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable1426 values('Sam'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec)
Display all records from the table using select −
mysql> select * from DemoTable1426;
This will produce the following output −
+-----------+ | FirstName | +-----------+ | John | | Adam | | Robert | | David | | Sam | +-----------+ 5 rows in set (0.00 sec)
Following is the query to order records but fix a specific name and display rest of the values (only some) random −
mysql> select * from DemoTable1426 order by (FirstName='Robert') desc,RAND() -> limit 3;
This will produce the following output −
+-----------+ | FirstName | +-----------+ | Robert | | Adam | | David | +-----------+ 3 rows in set (0.52 sec)