Getting A Random Row From A MS SQL Table

By philipnorton42 on 9th January 2008

To get a random row from a Microsoft SQL database you need to use the NEWID() function. This will generate a new random number for each row and order them by that new number. This is used in conjunction with the TOP clause to limit the amount of returned rows to one.

SELECT TOP 1 VALUE FROM TABLE ORDER BY NEWID()