Random Selection through PHP

[justbondage]

Would it not be more efficient however, to let MySQL run the function rand() instead of having it return your results only to let PHP perform a similar task?

I can see what you are saying (and select * is such a pussy way out, gets on my tits when I see it!) but the only alternative I can think of is to return all the results, then randomise them, which is going to mean possibly huge amounts of information being brought in for all but 10 records to be chucked out.

I did toy with the idea of making a random script that would generate say 10 IDs, and only return those from the database, but that assumes you have a table nicely ordered and no data ever gets removed from the table.