Question

How can I select a random row using Eloquent or Fluent in Laravel framework?

I know that by using SQL, you can do order by RAND(). However, I would like to get the random row without doing a count on the number of records prior to the initial query.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Laravel >= 5.2:

User::inRandomOrder()->get();

or to get the specific number of records

// 5 indicates the number of records
User::inRandomOrder()->limit(5)->get();
// get one random record
User::inRandomOrder()->first();

or using the random method for collections:

User::all()->random();
User::all()->random(10); // The amount of items you wish to receive

Laravel 4.2.7 – 5.1:

User::orderByRaw("RAND()")->get();

Laravel 4.0 – 4.2.6:

User::orderBy(DB::raw('RAND()'))->get();

Laravel 3:

User::order_by(DB::raw('RAND()'))->get();

Check this article on MySQL random rows. Laravel 5.2 supports this, for older version, there is no better solution then using RAW Queries.

edit 1: As mentioned by Double Gras, orderBy() doesn’t allow anything else then ASC or DESC since this change. I updated my answer accordingly.

edit 2: Laravel 5.2 finally implements a wrapper function for this. It’s called inRandomOrder().