Getting A Random Row From A PostgreSQL Table

By philipnorton42 on 10th January 2008

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

SELECT value FROM table ORDER BY RANDOM() LIMIT 1