Question

I would like to take a database of say, 1000 users and select 20 random ones (ORDER BY rand(),LIMIT 20) then order the resulting set by the names. I came up with the following query which is not working like I hoped.

SELECT * FROM users WHERE 1 ORDER BY rand(), name ASC LIMIT 20

Answer 1

Use a subquery:

SELECT * FROM 
(
    SELECT * FROM users ORDER BY rand() LIMIT 20
) T1
ORDER BY name 

The inner query selects 20 users at random and the outer query orders the selected users by name.