Re: Select random rows?

<jobrien99_at_my-deja.com> wrote in message news:8054re$ufp$1_at_nnrp1.deja.com... stion.
[snip]
> Overestimate and use a cursor that fetches 10 times and then closes.
> So what if 2% brings back 14 rows, ignore the extra 4.
>
> Regards,
> John

You still didn't get the point.

1. Though you think 2% will return 14 rows, you can not anticipate how many exactly rows Oracle will return, Oracle may returns only, say, 5 rows, for example.
2. If you increase the percent, though yon can get more then 10 rows and ignore the extra rows, but, you take sample from the forward rows, not from the WHOLE table. The "last rows" will never be read.