[Developers] Random pick...

[Kirrily Robert]

I think it would be good if we could say "return" : "random" to get a  
random item, like how you can do "return" : "count" for a count.

K.

On May 8, 2008, at 12:03 PM, Arthur van Hoff wrote:

> I tried using the timestamp method that JG suggested, but  
> unfortunately the topics are not distributed evenly over the time  
> span. I ended up reading the entire list and one picking at random.
>
> In a separate discussion I have suggested to JG that there should be  
> a way to do this with cursors. I would like to be able to find out  
> from a cursor the current position and total number of results that  
> the result set may produce. Also, I want a way to seek the cursor to  
> a given position in a result set. This would be handy in general,  
> for example for paging through a result set, but it would also allow  
> me to pick a random position and seek to it.
>
> From: developers-bounces at freebase.com [mailto:developers-bounces at freebase.com 
> ] On Behalf Of Kendra Kuhl
> Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 11:02 AM
> To: 'For discussions about MQL,Freebase API and apps built on  
> Freebase'
> Subject: Re: [Developers] Random pick...
>
> Does somebody have a query like this handy?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Kendra
>
> From: developers-bounces at freebase.com [mailto:developers-bounces at freebase.com 
> ] On Behalf Of John Giannandrea
> Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 2:11 PM
> To: For discussions about MQL, Freebase API and apps built on Freebase
> Subject: Re: [Developers] Random pick...
>
>
> Arthur van Hoff wrote:
> I need to randomly pick a few topics of a specific type out of  
> Freebase.
> Any suggestions on how to do this without first requesting the  
> entire list?
>
> We dont currently have a good way to do this.
> One option would be read the first and last timestamped instances of  
> a type and then run rand over the range and pick limit:1 at some  
> random timestamp ranges.
> -jg
>
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-- 
Kirrily Robert
Freebase Community Director
kirrily at metaweb.com
http://freebase.com/




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