Question

I am allowing users to find a random record from a list of posts. I define the random function in my model like so:

def self.random
   if (c = count) != 0
 find(:first, :offset => rand(c))
   end
end

I would really like to limit the possibility of duplicates. There are not a large number of posts so I am not worried about performance. Is there a simple way to ensure that all posts are displayed in a random order before cycling through the same posts again?

Answer 1

Depending on what SQL storage engine you’re using, many implement a RAND() function, so you could do something like this:

MyModel.order('RAND()').all

To return all posts in a random order.