Manual:Random page/en

A random page can be viewed via Special:Random. This uses the  function, which is capable of avoiding duplicate values for up to approximately 4,611,686,014,132,420,609 (i.e., ≈ $$(2^{31} - 1)(2^{31} - 1)$$) articles, and the  values from the page table. The hook can be used to modify the selection criteria. The  configuration setting was used as a filter, but has been deprecated in v1.16.

In, the RAND function is used to populate page_random.

By default, selection will be limited to pages from namespaces in. The user can choose which namespace to look in. For example, if they wanted to view a random file they could go to Special:Random/file. If they wanted to view a random mainspace page they could go to Special:Random/main, etc.

The file that implements this feature is SpecialRandompage.php. SpecialRandomredirect.php (Special:Randomredirect) directs the user to a random redirect page (minus the second redirect). There is an array,, that allows for adding extra SQL statements to the query for selecting a random page from the database.