How To Limit and Randomize The Data Displayed

[swbdesigns]

Hello,

I have a stock page on my site and want to use the code to display a small stock area on my home page. I am not sure on how I would limit the number of records or randomize the records shown. The code is

 <?php
	  	$coachselect=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM coaches WHERE DISPLAY = '1' ORDER BY STOCK")or die(mysql_error());
				while($row = mysql_fetch_array($coachselect)){
				?>
                    
                    <ul class="stock-home">
                    <li><h4><a href="details-id-<?php echo $row['ID']; ?>.html" target="_blank"></a></h4></li>
                    <li><img src="./<?php echo $row['IMAGES'] . "/" . $row['DEFAULT_IMAGE'] ; ?>" width="187" height="138" alt="lehel virage for sale"  class="fl"/></li>
                    <li><?php echo $row['NAME']; ?></h3></li><li><?php echo $row['DESC_SHORT']; ?></li>
                    <li><a href="details.php?id=<?php echo $row['ID']; ?>" target="_blank">more info...</a></li>
<li><?php echo $row['DESC_2']; ?></li>
                    
                    </ul><!--close stock home-->
    
    <?php
			}
			?>

 

 

I am guessing that something needs to be added here

$coachselect=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM coaches WHERE DISPLAY = '1' ORDER BY STOCK")or die(mysql_error());
				while($row = mysql_fetch_array($coachselect)){
				?>

 

 

But am not sure how to do it? Does anyone have any advice or could point me to a tutorial?

 

 

Here is the rest of the code, from the top of the page.

 

$CON=mysql_connect($DB_SERVER, $DB_USER, $DB_PASS) or die(mysql_error());
$DB_SELECT=mysql_select_db($DATABASE) or die(mysql_error());

if (isset($_POST)) {
foreach ($_POST as &$value) {
    $value = trim(htmlspecialchars($value, ENT_QUOTES));
}
}

if (isset($_GET)) {
foreach ($_GET as &$value) {
    $value = trim(htmlspecialchars($value, ENT_QUOTES));
}
}

$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] = filter_var($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

?>

 

Many Thanks

 

Dan

[AbraCadaver]

LIMIT

 

and

 

ORDER BY RAND()

[swbdesigns]

Thanks for the reply, doo i add that here?

$coachselect=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM coaches WHERE DISPLAY = '1' ORDER BY STOCK   LIMIT 0, 8 ORDER BY RAND() ")or die(mysql_error());

 

cheers

[AbraCadaver]

FYI, rand() is slower on large datasets:

 

SELECT * FROM coaches WHERE DISPLAY = '1' ORDER BY RAND(), STOCK LIMIT 8

[swbdesigns]

Cheers Shawn, It should be okay it currently has 30 records and I can assume it will never get to the hundreds! Thanks again