MySQL - getting from random column but specifying amounts

I would like to do this

  SELECT * 
    FROM Thoughts 
ORDER BY RAND() 
 LIMIT 1 WHERE ups > 5

...but it is returning an error. Do you know an alternative 开发者_运维技巧around that? I'm a bit new to MySQL, thanks.

The order of the clauses is important. Do

SELECT * FROM Thoughts WHERE ups > 5 ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1

Also, in the future, post the error you that you're getting. "An error" is amazingly unspecific.

order by rand() may cause performance issue, instead try to do in following way:

 // what NOT to do:  
 $r = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM Thoughts WHERE ups > 5 ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1");  

 // much better:  

 $r = mysql_query("SELECT count(*) FROM Thoughts WHERE ups > 5 ");  
 $d = mysql_fetch_row($r);  
 $rand = mt_rand(0,$d[0] - 1);  

  $r = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM Thoughts WHERE ups > 5  LIMIT $rand, 1");