MySQL select 10 random rows from 600K rows fast

Question

How can I best write a query that selects 10 rows randomly from a total of 600k?

Answer 1

I think here is a simple and yet faster way, I tested it on the live server in comparison with a few above answer and it was faster.

 SELECT * FROM `table_name` WHERE id >= (SELECT FLOOR( MAX(id) * RAND()) FROM `table_name` ) ORDER BY id LIMIT 30; 

//Took 0.0014secs against a table of 130 rows

SELECT * FROM `table_name` WHERE 1 ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 30

//Took 0.0042secs against a table of 130 rows

 SELECT name
FROM random AS r1 JOIN
   (SELECT CEIL(RAND() *
                 (SELECT MAX(id)
                    FROM random)) AS id)
    AS r2
WHERE r1.id >= r2.id
ORDER BY r1.id ASC
LIMIT 30

//Took 0.0040secs against a table of 130 rows