I have a MySQL table of servers, I use RAND() to pick a random server
to use each time, but how can I add a number to each server entry that
allows it be to picked more often than the other 20 servers?

For example Server1's weight is 80 and Server2's weight is 40 and
hence Server1 is more likely to be picked than the others.

EMAIL REMOVED kirjoitti:
> I have a MySQL table of servers, I use RAND() to pick a random server
> to use each time, but how can I add a number to each server entry that
> allows it be to picked more often than the other 20 servers?
>
> For example Server1's weight is 80 and Server2's weight is 40 and
> hence Server1 is more likely to be picked than the others.
>

In theory like this: pick a random weight and take into group all the
items that weigh more, it's more likely that heavier items are taken
into the group, than the lighter. From the group you have created, pick
one randomly. If no items were in the group, your random weight was too
big, so you might limit it to < maxweight, so that always at least one
item is picked.

Transforming this into a query is another thing. This is very rough
example but you'll get the idea, I suppose:

SELECT * FROM ( SELECT * FROM servers WHERE weight > RAND() ) ORDER BY
RAND() LIMIT 1,1

--
EMAIL REMOVED

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On May 27, 12:10 pm, alpha.be...@googlemail.com wrote:
> I have a MySQL table of servers, I use RAND() to pick a random server
> to use each time, but how can I add a number to each server entry that
> allows it be to picked more often than the other 20 servers?
>
> For example Server1's weight is 80 and Server2's weight is 40 and
> hence Server1 is more likely to be picked than the others.

You could also do something like:

select serverId from server order by rand() / weight limit 1