Does anyone know how to retrieve a given number of random
records from an Access database in SQL ?
Thanks.
<chuckle> Just answered this in a message posted to this same
newsgroup about 15 minutes before yours.
You can use the Top Values property of a query, with help
from a little VBA. Put this little function into a Module:
Public Function RndNum(vIgnore As Variant) As Double Static
bRnd As Boolean If Not bRnd Then 'Initialize the random
number generator once only bRnd = True Randomize End If
RndNum = Rnd() End Function
Then add a calculated field to your Query by typing
Shuffle: RndNum([fieldname])
in a vacant Field cell, where [fieldname] is any field in
your table - this forces Access to give a different random
number for each record.
Sort the query by Shuffle, and set its Top Values property
to the number of records you want to see.
.
