How do I select a fixed number of rows for each group?

Question

Here is some example data in a mysql table

a   b   distance
15  44  250
94  31  250
30  41  250
6   1   250
95  18  250
72  84  500
14  23  500
55  24  500
9         


        

Answer 1

I wonder if this will work?

SELECT 
   a,b,distance 
FROM YourTable t2
   WHERE ROW(a,b,distance) IN 
   (
      SELECT a,b,distance FROM YourTable t1 
      WHERE t1.distance=t2.distance ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 2
   )

EDIT: unfortunately not. LIMIT is not supported in a subquery.