Using PHP to pull data from MySQL table column randomly - php

Question

I am using the following (assume I already plan to change these to mysqli at a later date and am aware of the insecurity of the queries used), to pull text strings from rows in one column in a MySQL table and the output in a browser would, ideally, be a randomly selected string from this column:
mysql_connect($host,$username,$password);
mysql_select_db($database) or die(mysql_error ());
$query="SELECT * FROM `tablename` ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 0,1;";
$result=mysql_query($query);
$rows = array();
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($rs)) {
$rows[] = $row;
}
mysql_close();
$max = count($rows) - 1;
Using the following echo line to achieve the last bit in the browser:
echo $rows[rand(0, $max)][0] . " " . $rows[rand(0, $max)][1] . " " . $rows[rand(0, $max)][2] . " " . $rows[rand(0, $max)][3] . " " . $rows[rand(0, $max)][4]$
?>
I receive the error "PHP Notice: Undefined offset: 0 in script.php on line 19" in reference to this echo line (which, admittedly, was pieced together from other threads and tutorials, so I do not follow completely), however, I've since resolved all other errors logged and observed, so if possible, how can I amend this so the output is just a single row (the text within it) from the column?

Answer 1

Faster and better than using RAND()
$conn = mysqli_connect($host,$username,$password, $database);
if($conn->connect_errno > 0) {
die('Unable to connect to database [' . $conn->connect_error . ']');
}
$total_rows = 20; //Generate Random number. You could get $total_rows with a first query counting all rows.
$selected_row = mt_rand(0, $total_rows);
//$selected_row -= 1; //just in case you randomized 1 - $total_rows and still need first row.
//Use the result in your limit.
$query="SELECT * FROM `tablename` LIMIT $selected_row, 1;";
$result=$conn->query($query);
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
echo $row["columnname"];
}
Edit it from mysql to mysqli (on the fly). You would not want to use RAND() if your table is very large. Believe me!

Answer 2

In your SELECT-statement, you are telling the database to order the strings randomly. So just get the first one and echo it:
$row = mysql_fetch_array($rs)
echo $row['name_of_field_you_want_to_echo'];

Answer 3

You never define the variable $rs. Other than that...
If you are selecting the first items from a SQL query, you don't need to specify both the limit and top.
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `tablename` ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1");
Since that will ever return one row, you can use mysql_fetch_row
$row = mysql_fetch_row($result);
and then you can get the field from that row with
echo $row["column_name"];