MYSQL Select One Random record from each Category

Question

I have a database with an Items table that looks something like this:

id
name
category (int)

There are several hundred thousan

Answer 1

Here is a simple solution. Let suppose you have this table.

id  name    category
1   A       1
2   B       1
3   C       1
4   D       2
5   E       2
6   F       2
7   G       3
8   H       3
9   I       3

Use this query

select
  c.id,
  c.category,
  (select name from category where category = c.category   group by id order by rand() limit 1) as CatName
from category as c
group by category