Question

I want to construct an array of 3 offers that output in a random order. I have the following code and whilst it does output 3 random offers it doesn’t appear to be random. The first value in the generated array always seems to be from the 1st 2 records in my offers table. The offers table only has 5 records in it (I dont know if this is affecting things).

$arrayOfferCount = $offerCount-1;
$displayThisManyOffers = 3;

$range = range(0, $arrayOfferCount);
$vals = array_rand($range, $displayThisManyOffers);`

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I know that mt_rand() is much better PRNG.

However, in your case you need to let the database select them for you

SELECT * FROM ads ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 0, 3