MySQL Rand() 函數可以被調用，以產生一個在 0 和 1 之間的隨機數：

mysql>  SELECT RAND( ), RAND( ), RAND( );
+------------------+-----------------+------------------+
| RAND( )          | RAND( )         | RAND( )          |
+------------------+-----------------+------------------+
| 0.45464584925645 | 0.1824410643265 | 0.54826780459682 |
+------------------+-----------------+------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

當使用整數作為參數調用時，RAND()使用該值作為隨機數的種子發生器。每次種子使用給定值生成，RAND()將產生一個可重複的係列數字：

mysql>  SELECT RAND(1), RAND( ), RAND( );
+------------------+------------------+------------------+
| RAND(1 )         | RAND( )          | RAND( )          |
+------------------+------------------+------------------+
| 0.18109050223705 | 0.75023211143001 | 0.20788908117254 |
+------------------+------------------+------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

可以使用ORDER BY RAND()進行隨機行集或值，如下：

要理解ORDER BY RAND()函數，考慮一個employee_tbl表，有以下記錄：

mysql> SELECT * FROM employee_tbl;
+------+------+------------+--------------------+
| id   | name | work_date  | daily_typing_pages |
+------+------+------------+--------------------+
|    1 | John | 2007-01-24 |                250 |
|    2 | Ram  | 2007-05-27 |                220 |
|    3 | Jack | 2007-05-06 |                170 |
|    3 | Jack | 2007-04-06 |                100 |
|    4 | Jill | 2007-04-06 |                220 |
|    5 | Zara | 2007-06-06 |                300 |
|    5 | Zara | 2007-02-06 |                350 |
+------+------+------------+--------------------+
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)

現在，使用下麵的命令：

mysql> SELECT * FROM employee_tbl ORDER BY RAND();
+------+------+------------+--------------------+
| id   | name | work_date  | daily_typing_pages |
+------+------+------------+--------------------+
|    5 | Zara | 2007-06-06 |                300 |
|    3 | Jack | 2007-04-06 |                100 |
|    3 | Jack | 2007-05-06 |                170 |
|    2 | Ram  | 2007-05-27 |                220 |
|    4 | Jill | 2007-04-06 |                220 |
|    5 | Zara | 2007-02-06 |                350 |
|    1 | John | 2007-01-24 |                250 |
+------+------+------------+--------------------+
7 rows in set (0.01 sec)

mysql> SELECT * FROM employee_tbl ORDER BY RAND();
+------+------+------------+--------------------+
| id   | name | work_date  | daily_typing_pages |
+------+------+------------+--------------------+
|    5 | Zara | 2007-02-06 |                350 |
|    2 | Ram  | 2007-05-27 |                220 |
|    3 | Jack | 2007-04-06 |                100 |
|    1 | John | 2007-01-24 |                250 |
|    4 | Jill | 2007-04-06 |                220 |
|    3 | Jack | 2007-05-06 |                170 |
|    5 | Zara | 2007-06-06 |                300 |
+------+------+------------+--------------------+
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)