Putting "weight" on my query (pulling from MySQL DB)

Hello guys, I am a good "copycatter" if you would like to say. Currently I made a very basic randomizer that will display 8 fields that is pulled from a MySQL db table. But I want to know how I can put weight on some of the queries so they will show more often when it's pulling the 8 random queries. Here is my code.

<?PHP
$q=mysql_query("SELECT Name AS feat_name, URL AS feat_url, Thumbnail AS feat_thumb FROM `featured` ORDER BY RAND() ASC LIMIT 8");
while ($line=mysql_fetch_assoc($q)) {
    echo "<td align=\"center\" valign=\"middle\">";
    echo "<a href=\"$line[feat_url]\" class=\"maintext\" target=\"_blank\"><img src=\"/images/$line[feat_thumb]\" class=\"thumbnail\" align=\"middle\"><br> <small>$line[feat_name]</small></a>";
    echo "</td>";
}


?>

PHP:

I'm assuming I would have to add another field to the MySQL db called "weight" or something. But I'm stuck at that.

Thank you!

 

yes you can add an extra field in the db or find a keyword that you want to put more weight on it and use it to filter the results "like..."

 

I'm sorry? You will have to be more descriptive, i'm a noob when it comes to PHP.

Say i'm doing a 1-10 weight system, 10 getting the most views, 1 getting the least.

How would I do that?

 

$weight[10] = 10;
$weight[9] = 19;
$weight[8] = 27;
$weight[7] = 34;
$weight[6] = 40;
$weight[5] = 45;
$weight[4] = 49;
$weight[3] = 52;
$weight[2] = 54;
$weight[1] = 55;

$random = rand(1, 55);

switch ($random) {
case <= $weight[10]:
    echo "SELECT * FROM table WHERE weight = 10;
    break;
case <= $weight[9]:
    echo "SELECT * FROM table WHERE weight = 9;
    break;
case <= $weight[8]:
    echo "SELECT * FROM table WHERE weight = 8;
    break;
case <= $weight[7]:
    echo "SELECT * FROM table WHERE weight = 7;
    break;
case <= $weight[6]:
    echo "SELECT * FROM table WHERE weight = 6;
    break;
case <= $weight[5]:
    echo "SELECT * FROM table WHERE weight = 5;
    break;
case <= $weight[4]:
    echo "SELECT * FROM table WHERE weight = 4;
    break;
case <= $weight[3]:
    echo "SELECT * FROM table WHERE weight = 3;
    break;
case <= $weight[2]:
    echo "SELECT * FROM table WHERE weight = 2;
    break;
case <= $weight[1]:
    echo "SELECT * FROM table WHERE weight = 1;
    break;
}

Code (markup):

As usual that was off the top of my head so could be wrong.


Edit: Actually this wouldn't work unless each weighting had the same number of rows, but at least you can work from here. Maybe.

 

There has to be an easier way.

Someone on another board said this but I don't understand what he meant.

ALTER TABLE featured ADD COLUMN weight int unsigned DEFAULT 0;

Code (markup):

Give that column some values of 0 - 9 (or whatever)

Then, in your query, do something like

SELECT RAND()*Weight AS Weighted
  FROM blah
ORDER BY Weighted

Code (markup):

EDIT: got it!

 $q=mysql_query("SELECT Name AS feat_name, URL AS feat_url, Thumbnail AS feat_thumb, RAND() * Weight AS Weighted FROM `featured` ORDER BY Weighted DESC LIMIT 8");
while ($line=mysql_fetch_assoc($q)) {  

PHP: