random record with SELECT TOP does NOT work

[Jimmy]

thanks to everyone that helped, unfortunately the code samples people gave me don't work. here is what i have so far:

<%
Dim oConn, oRS, randNum
Randomize()
randNum = (CInt(1000 * Rnd) + 1) * -1
Set oConn=Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
Set oRS=Server.CreateObject("ADODB.recordset")
oConn.Provider="Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0"
oConn.Open Server.MapPath("temp.mdb")

oRS.Open "SELECT TOP 1 EMAIL_ADDRESS, r = Rnd(" & randNum & ") FROM TABLE1 ORDER BY r", oConn, adOpenStatic, adLockReadOnly

Response.Write oRS("EMAIL_ADDRESS")

oRS.close
oConn.close
Set oConn = nothing
Set oRS = nothing
%>

this gives the error: "No value given for one or more required parameters".

what i would really LOVE is for someone to fill in whatever required parameter im missing, but more important i would like to understand whats going on. there are people who go through life dumb and happy once something "works", but i need to understand how and why its working. even if this code did work, im confused with the SELECT statement (no, i dont have much SQL experience aside from basic queries). what is the "r = Rnd" line doing in the middle of the querie? how am i ordering by r?? also, i dont have an indexed, primary "ID" field in this databae. is that ok for this code to work?

thank you for your help

 

[Aaron Bertrand [SQL Server MVP]]

oRS.Open "SELECT TOP 1 EMAIL_ADDRESS, r = Rnd(" & randNum & ") FROM
Do you have adovbs.inc included? Otherwise, where are adOpenStatic and
adLockReadyOnly defined?

How about

Set oRS = oConn.Execute("SELECT ... ORDER BY r")

what is the "r = Rnd" line doing in the middle of the querie?

It's generating a new random number within Access, seeded by the one you
created in the ASP code.

how am i ordering by r??

You're applying a random number to each row. TOP 1 ... ORDER BY r will give
you whatever row happened to get the lowest random number. If you don't use
ORDER BY, then you will likely get the same row over and over again.

A

 

[Jimmy]

ok so...

is there a difference in the way you open the recordset, with the Execute
statement and the way i do it with oRS.Open? will they both accomplish the
same thing for the purpose of this piece of code?

yes i do include adovbs.inc

and im still confused.... what is wrong with the statement as i have it
right here:

oRS.Open "SELECT TOP 1 EMAIL_ADDRESS, r = Rnd(" & randNum & ") FROM TABLE1
ORDER BY r", oConn, adOpenStatic, adLockReadOnly

it seems like just what youre doing, but it doesnt work.

 

[Jimmy]

that was MY question.

and i still dont have this working

anyone?

[please don't toppost on USENET]

is there a difference in the way you open the recordset,
with the Execute statement and the way i do it with
oRS.Open?

Yes. His method is more readable, and reflects an understanding that you
don't ever want to find yourself worrying about which cursor to use
because you ought not be using anything but the static forward readonly
type in a stateless application anyway.

will they both accomplish the same thing for the purpose
of this piece of code?

Yes, and so would 100 million other things. Aaron is offering you a best
practice based on years of experience working with ASP and ADO. He has a
whole site full of valuable information for ASP developers, both new and
experienced.

and im still confused.... what is wrong with the statement as i have
it right here:

oRS.Open "SELECT TOP 1 EMAIL_ADDRESS, r = Rnd(" & randNum & ") FROM
TABLE1 ORDER BY r", oConn, adOpenStatic, adLockReadOnly

it seems like just what youre doing, but it doesnt work.

You didn't answer Aaron's question. What is r=Rnd() doing in the middle of
your SQL query?




--
Dave Anderson

Unsolicited commercial email will be read at a cost of $500 per message.
Use of this email address implies consent to these terms.

 

[Evertjan.]

Jimmy wrote on 10 sep 2006 in microsoft.public.inetserver.asp.general:

and i still dont have this working

No, it hat true?
Don't you know that topposting is frowned upon by many?
Because I like topposting.
Why don't you change to a more aggreable way of posting?
Because I toppost.
Why cann't others easily follow your thread?

 

[Guest]

what the hell are you talking about?

Jimmy wrote on 10 sep 2006 in microsoft.public.inetserver.asp.general:


No, it hat true?
Don't you know that topposting is frowned upon by many?
Because I like topposting.
Why don't you change to a more aggreable way of posting?
Because I toppost.
Why cann't others easily follow your thread?

 

[Evertjan.]

wrote on 10 sep 2006 in microsoft.public.inetserver.asp.general:

[topposting corrected]

what the hell are you talking about?

Please reread, and be polite, hgive a name.

 

[Anthony Jones]

ok so...

is there a difference in the way you open the recordset, with the Execute
statement and the way i do it with oRS.Open? will they both accomplish the
same thing for the purpose of this piece of code?

yes i do include adovbs.inc

and im still confused.... what is wrong with the statement as i have it
right here:

oRS.Open "SELECT TOP 1 EMAIL_ADDRESS, r = Rnd(" & randNum & ") FROM TABLE1
ORDER BY r", oConn, adOpenStatic, adLockReadOnly

it seems like just what youre doing, but it doesnt work.

Did you mean:-

oRS.Open "SELECT TOP 1 EMAIL_ADDRESS, Rnd(" & randNum & ") As r FROM TABLE1
ORDER BY r", oConn, adOpenStatic, adLockReadOnly

??

 

[Bob Barrows [MVP]]

Did you mean:-

oRS.Open "SELECT TOP 1 EMAIL_ADDRESS, Rnd(" & randNum & ") As r FROM
TABLE1 ORDER BY r", oConn, adOpenStatic, adLockReadOnly

You are not allowed to order by a column alias in JetSQL. However, you can
order by the ordinal position of a column:

 

[Anthony Jones]

You are not allowed to order by a column alias in JetSQL. However, you can
order by the ordinal position of a column:

You see this is why I don't answer Jet based questions there are always
nuances I miss. Should've stuck to my usual policy

 

[Evertjan.]

Bob Barrows [MVP] wrote on 11 sep 2006 in
microsoft.public.inetserver.asp.general:

You are not allowed to order by a column alias in JetSQL. However, you
can order by the ordinal position of a column:

Regarding JetSQL, Bob, do you mean that:

"SELECT * FROM TABLE1 ORDER BY 0"

orders by the first field in the database, as set up in Access,
and

"SELECT p,q,r FROM TABLE1 ORDER BY 0"

orders by field p, even if p stands 3rd in the Access setup order?

 

[Jimmy]

i wish so much that someone could make sense of this and make it work...

here is the query i have, which many people from this group have copied and
pasted from a website where i also found the query, and it does not work:

"SELECT TOP 1 EMAIL_ADDRESS, r = Rnd(" & randNum & ") FROM TBL_SECRETS ORDER
BY r"

can anyone see why this doesnt work and possibly make it work?

 

[Bob Barrows [MVP]]

Bob Barrows [MVP] wrote on 11 sep 2006 in
microsoft.public.inetserver.asp.general:


Regarding JetSQL, Bob, do you mean that:

"SELECT * FROM TABLE1 ORDER BY 0"

orders by the first field in the database, as set up in Access,
and

"SELECT p,q,r FROM TABLE1 ORDER BY 0"

orders by field p, even if p stands 3rd in the Access setup order?

I'm pretty sure the ordinal position in this context starts at 1, not 0. I'd
have to try it to be sure.
The ordinal position refers to the columns that appear in the select list,
not to the columns as they appear in the table. Of course, selstar makes the
select list equal to the Access setup order.

 

[Evertjan.]

Bob Barrows [MVP] wrote on 11 sep 2006 in
microsoft.public.inetserver.asp.general:

I'm pretty sure the ordinal position in this context starts at 1, not
0. I'd have to try it to be sure.
The ordinal position refers to the columns that appear in the select
list, not to the columns as they appear in the table. Of course,
selstar makes the select list equal to the Access setup order.

You are right:

Microsoft JET Database Engine error '80040e14'

The Microsoft Jet database engine does not recognize '0' as a valid field
name or expression.

[Still a bit strange that field 0 in the star sense is field 1.]

 

[Bob Barrows [MVP]]

[Still a bit strange that field 0 in the star sense is field 1.]

It's znzlogous to the Ubound and LBound functions: the dimension
identifiers start at 1, not 0.

 

[Bob Barrows [MVP]]

[Still a bit strange that field 0 in the star sense is field 1.]

It's znzlogous

Errmmm, that should, of course, be "analogous"

 

[Anthony Jones]

i wish so much that someone could make sense of this and make it work...

here is the query i have, which many people from this group have copied and
pasted from a website where i also found the query, and it does not work:

"SELECT TOP 1 EMAIL_ADDRESS, r = Rnd(" & randNum & ") FROM TBL_SECRETS ORDER
BY r"

can anyone see why this doesnt work and possibly make it work?

Hello, Hello... is this mic on??

Have you read any of the responses to your question??

 

[Jimmy]

yes and none have given a clear answer.
its funny but the code i originally found on the aspfaq site is apparently
what everyone uses to answer a question regarding random records in access,
however it doesnt work!! LOL... pretty funny actually. but yes, i have
confirmed that it does not work as written, and all of the "guru's" that
were so quick to have an attitude in the beginning have since shut up
because they cant look at the SQL query and figure out whats wrong with it.
oh well, ill continue to use the function that i wrote which works fine. and
if anyone else would like to point out how inefficient my function is, and
offer another solution, have the sense to test it first!

 

[Larry Bud]

thanks to everyone that helped, unfortunately the code samples people gave me don't work. here is what i have so far:

<%
Dim oConn, oRS, randNum
Randomize()
randNum = (CInt(1000 * Rnd) + 1) * -1
Set oConn=Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
Set oRS=Server.CreateObject("ADODB.recordset")
oConn.Provider="Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0"
oConn.Open Server.MapPath("temp.mdb")

oRS.Open "SELECT TOP 1 EMAIL_ADDRESS, r = Rnd(" & randNum & ") FROM TABLE1 ORDER BY r", oConn, adOpenStatic, adLockReadOnly

Response.Write oRS("EMAIL_ADDRESS")

oRS.close
oConn.close
Set oConn = nothing
Set oRS = nothing
%>

That SQL definitely does NOT work in Access 2003. It ends up giving
the column R the same value for each row.

Here's the real answer

SELECT TOP 1 email_address, Rnd(ID) FROM mytable ORDER BY 2;

where mytable is your table that contains email_address and ID. ID is
important, as it's a unique integer for each row. It doesn't matter
how the rows are numbered, but as long as each one is unique, you get a
different value for the 2nd column on each row. ORDER BY 2 orders by
the 2nd column listed.

NOW, PLEASE DO NOT TOP POST. Top posting is posting your answer to a
message BEFORE or ABOVE or ON TOP of the previous messages. The
problem is that if someone needs to read the whole posted thread, they
have to start at the bottom and work their way to the top. It'd be
like reading a newspaper column a paragraph at a time, starting with
the last paragraph.

Hope this helps.

 

[Dave Anderson]

yes and none have given a clear answer.
its funny but the code i originally found on the aspfaq site is
apparently what everyone uses to answer a question regarding random
records in access, however it doesnt work!! LOL... pretty funny
actually. but yes, i have confirmed that it does not work as written,
and all of the "guru's" that were so quick to have an attitude in the
beginning have since shut up because they cant look at the SQL query
and figure out whats wrong with it. oh well, ill continue to use the
function that i wrote which works fine. and if anyone else would like
to point out how inefficient my function is, and offer another
solution, have the sense to test it first!

We have shut up because you spend more time whining that "it doesn't work"
than giving useful details that would help us help you.

I have to say I lost interest in helping you when you admitted on your
*12th* message that you still didn't have a DB up and running with which to
test all of the advice you were getting.

Meet us halfway, and we can be an accommodating bunch. Make us work to give
you advice, and you will get what you paid for: nothing.