MySQL: Alternatives to ORDER BY RAND()

Question

I\'ve read about a few alternatives to MySQL\'s ORDER BY RAND() function, but most of the alternatives apply only to where on a single random result is needed.

Answer 1

Here's an alternative, but it is still based on using RAND():

  SELECT u.id, 
         p.photo,
         ROUND(RAND() * x.m_id) 'rand_ind'
    FROM users u, 
         profiles p,
         (SELECT MAX(t.id) 'm_id'
            FROM USERS t) x
   WHERE p.memberid = u.id 
     AND p.photo != '' 
     AND (u.ownership=1 OR u.stamp=1) 
ORDER BY rand_ind
   LIMIT 18

This is slightly more complex, but gave a better distribution of random_ind values:

  SELECT u.id, 
         p.photo,
         FLOOR(1 + RAND() * x.m_id) 'rand_ind'
    FROM users u, 
         profiles p,
         (SELECT MAX(t.id) - 1 'm_id'
            FROM USERS t) x
   WHERE p.memberid = u.id 
     AND p.photo != '' 
     AND (u.ownership=1 OR u.stamp=1) 
ORDER BY rand_ind
   LIMIT 18