Question

This works fine, but there is a problem when it returns less than 8 results.
Is there any alternative than to repeat a query for the rest of the results that are missing?
Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

       $vacation = mysql_query("SELECT i.* 
       FROM vacation_offer_tbl i
       INNER JOIN vacation_offer_pics_tbl c ON (c.vacat_offer_id = i.vacat_offer_id)
       WHERE i.conditional ='1' 
       AND c.pic_1 != ''
       // if < 8 results rerurn the rest where c.pic_1 ='nothing' 
       ORDER BY rand() 
       LIMIT 8") or die(mysql_error());

Answer 1

Im not sure how well this will work with the ORDER BY rand() but something like this might help

SELECT i.*, if(c.pic_1 != '',0,1) as sortOn
FROM vacation_offer_tbl i
INNER JOIN vacation_offer_pics_tbl c ON (c.vacat_offer_id = i.vacat_offer_id)
WHERE i.conditional ='1' 
ORDER BY sortOn, rand() 
LIMIT 8