> Again, a simple example of the sort of thing you are trying to do will
> make it easier to suggest a good way of doing it.

What I am trying to do is to force the sort order of rows returned from a
stored procedure to be randomly sorted. Basically what is happening is that
a user is browsing a list of records in a category. However in addition to
return the rows that are members of that category, I also want to return a
set of rows that are members of associated categories (ie. Share the same
parent), but AFTER the first set of matching rows are returned (this is
where my previous question about joining sets, which I have been able to get
working with a UNION statement per the suggestion).

However the order that the second set of rows are returned is important.
The first set should be the matching rows to they category that the user has
selected. Then a random selection of rows from categories that are loosely
associated (ie. Share the same parent). I don't want to show any favoritism
with the second set of data being returned, hence the need for random order.

I don't want to have the client application handle the sort order. I'd
prefer a stored procedure to do the work. UDFs are out of the question
because I don't really want any external software involved due to
performance issues (and that this database is running on Linux and I don't
want to have to cross compile code, etc.).

I was hoping that by using a RANDom number generator in the ORDER BY clause,
I might be able to define the sort order of the less specific data set to be
returned. I'd just like to have the rows returned in different random order
each time.

Any ideas?

Regards,
Myles

===============================
Myles Wakeham
Director of Engineering
Tech Solutions US, Inc.
Phone (480) 451-7440
www.techsol.org