How to randomly select rows in SQL?

Question

I am using MSSQL Server 2005. In my db, I have a table "customerNames" which has two columns "Id" and "Name" and approx. 1,000 results. I am creating a functionality where I have to pick 5 customers randomly every time. Can anyone tell me how to create a query which will get random 5 rows (Id, and Name) every time when query is executed?

Answer 1

Use RAND() to randomly generate 5 unique values, then run your main query using those 5 values as criteria for a WHERE against ROW_NUMBER.