Use this scope:
class Stick
named_scope :shuffled, lambda {
last_record = last
{ :conditions => [ 'id >= ?', rand(last_record.id) ] } if last_record
}
end
You can now pick a random stick by saying
Stick.shuffled.first
Or, if you prefer something smaller:
class Stick
named_scope :shuffled, :order => 'RAND()'
end
Note however that you should never order by RAND()
on tables that may become large some day, as this performs horribly and can kill your database server.