Re: random record from small set

Or
create table r1 (
  i int,
  chance_from numeric
)
and
select * from r1 where chance_from <= $rnd order by chance_from desc
limit 1;
which can be easier updated...
Just ideas, I has never tested it...

Jan Poslusny wrote:

> And what about another data representation like
>
> create table r1 (
>   i int,
>   chance_from numeric,
>   chance_to numeric
> )
> , you can select one random row in one select, for instance
> select * from r1 where chance_from <= $rnd and chance_to > $rnd;
>
> I see these advantages
> - Only one select.
> - Indices can improve performance if r1 has many rows.
> and disadvantage
> - Tricky update
>
>
> Jeff Davis wrote:
>
>> I am trying to retrieve a random record (according to a chance
>> attribute) from a small set of records, each with a "chance" attribute.
>> This may eventually be somwhat of a performance concern, so I'd like to
>> make sure I'm doing this right.
>>
>> Here's what I have so far:
>>
>> create table r1 (
>>   i int,
>>   chance numeric
>> )
>> create or replace function randrec() returns int as $$
>>     $res = spi_exec_query('select i,chance from r1');
>>     $r = rand;
>>     $accum = 0;
>>     $i = 0;
>>     while($accum < $r) {
>>         $accum += $res->{rows}[$i++]->{chance}
>>     }
>>     return $res->{rows}[$i-1]->{i};
>> $$ language plperl;
>>
>> test=# select * from r1;
>> i | chance
>> ---+--------
>> 1 |   0.25
>> 2 |   0.20
>> 3 |   0.15
>> 4 |   0.10
>> 5 |   0.30
>>
>>
>> That seems to work, in that out of 10k times, I got the following
>> numbers of each:
>> 1 2479
>> 2 1959
>> 3 1522
>> 4 950
>> 5 3090
>>
>> But I have a few questions:
>> * Am I right to use NUMERIC for the chance attribute?
>> * Does perl's arithmetic leave me with the chance that those numeric
>> values don't add up to 1.00 (and in this case that could mean an
>> infinite loop)?
>> * In my design I'll need a constraint trigger making sure that the
>> numbers add up to 1.00. Will that be a performance problem for
>> operations on the table that don't modify the chance attribute?
>> * Is there a better way?
>> * Does spi_exec_query pull the entire result set into memory at once? Is
>> there a point at which performance could be a serious problem if there
>> are a large number of items to select among?
>>
>> Regards,
>>     Jeff Davis
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>