Fetching RAND() rows without ORDER BY RAND() in just one query

Question

Using RAND() in MySQL to get a single random row out of a huge table is very slow:

SELECT quote FROM quotes ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1

Here is

Answer 1

Is there a reason why a stored procedure cannot be used to create a prepared statement?

DELIMITER //
DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS rand_quote//
CREATE PROCEDURE rand_quote()
BEGIN
    SET @rand := ROUND((SELECT COUNT(*) FROM quotes) * RAND());
    SET @sql := CONCAT('SELECT * FROM quotes LIMIT ', @rand, ', 1');
    PREPARE stmt FROM @sql;
    EXECUTE stmt;
    DEALLOCATE PREPARE stmt;
END;
//
DELIMITER ;

Answer 2

I solved the problem by checking max id. Then i made php loop of rand(0, max_id) which checks if object exists. Done.

Much faster then previous ordering by rand.

Answer 3

I just figgured this one, that seams like a solution:

SELECT * FROM quotes
WHERE quotes_id = ROUND(
  (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM quotes) * RAND()
)
LIMIT 1

But it will work only if quotes_id has no gaps.