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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-17T21:45:17+00:00

So, let’s say I’ve got a queryable database with 100 data objects in it.

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So, let’s say I’ve got a queryable database with 100 data objects in it. I want to show 3 random ones.

I don’t have any working code since this is an idea I just had.

Method 1:

  • Query Database for 3 random ids using mt_rand()

so essentially Query for IDs (1, 15, 67) then print each one.

OR

Method 2:

  • Use mt_rand() in the loop with a counter ($counter = 0; $counter = ++$counter)

essentially Query ALL posts if (ID = 1, 15, 67) then print each one and if ($counter = 3){ break; }

Method 2 sounds like it would give me a nasty large object. While Method 1 sounds like it would be a more expensive DB query. I think Method 1 would be better, but I’m not sure

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    If your ID column is indexed, which it probably should be, then doing a select with 

    WHERE id IN (1, 15, 67)

    is very cheap. And it will scale even if you have many more rows in your table. Solution 2 will not scale as it selects the whole table and loads it into memory.

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