MySQL UPDATE with random number between 1-3

Question

Got a big table and I want to add a column that has a randomly chosen number for each record. 1, 2, or 3.

Having a hard time. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Try this:

UPDATE tableName SET columnName = FLOOR( 1 + RAND( ) *3 );

From the MySQL documentation for RAND:

Returns a random floating-point value v in the range 0 <= v < 1.0.

So in the above query, the largest value which could be generated by 1 + RAND()*3 would be 3.999999, which when floored would give 3. The smallest value would occur when RAND() returns 0, in which case this would give 1.