How this can return more than 1 result?

Question

How this query can return more than 1 row?

SELECT username FROM phpbb_users WHERE user_id = (SELECT (FLOOR(RAND() * (5050 - 50 + 1)) + 50));

Table meta:

CREATE TABLE `phpbb_users` (
  `user_id` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `user_type` tinyint(2) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `group_id` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '3',
  `user_permissions` mediumtext COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL,
  `user_perm_from` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_ip` varchar(40) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_regdate` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `username` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `username_clean` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_password` varchar(40) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_passchg` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_pass_convert` tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_email` varchar(100) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_email_hash` bigint(20) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_birthday` varchar(10) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_lastvisit` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_lastmark` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_lastpost_time` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_lastpage` varchar(200) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_last_confirm_key` varchar(10) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_last_search` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_warnings` tinyint(4) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_last_warning` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_login_attempts` tinyint(4) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_inactive_reason` tinyint(2) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_inactive_time` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_posts` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_lang` varchar(30) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_timezone` decimal(5,2) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0.00',
  `user_dst` tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_dateformat` varchar(30) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT 'd M Y H:i',
  `user_style` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_rank` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_colour` varchar(6) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_new_privmsg` int(4) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_unread_privmsg` int(4) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_last_privmsg` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_message_rules` tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_full_folder` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '-3',
  `user_emailtime` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_topic_show_days` smallint(4) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_topic_sortby_type` varchar(1) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT 't',
  `user_topic_sortby_dir` varchar(1) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT 'd',
  `user_post_show_days` smallint(4) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_post_sortby_type` varchar(1) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT 't',
  `user_post_sortby_dir` varchar(1) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT 'a',
  `user_notify` tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_notify_pm` tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '1',
  `user_notify_type` tinyint(4) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_allow_pm` tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '1',
  `user_allow_viewonline` tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '1',
  `user_allow_viewemail` tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '1',
  `user_allow_massemail` tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '1',
  `user_options` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '230271',
  `user_avatar` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_avatar_type` tinyint(2) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_avatar_width` smallint(4) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_avatar_height` smallint(4) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_sig` mediumtext COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL,
  `user_sig_bbcode_uid` varchar(8) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_sig_bbcode_bitfield` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_from` varchar(100) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_icq` varchar(15) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_aim` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_yim` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_msnm` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_jabber` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_website` varchar(200) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_occ` text COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL,
  `user_interests` text COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL,
  `user_actkey` varchar(32) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_newpasswd` varchar(40) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_form_salt` varchar(32) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `user_new` tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '1',
  `user_reminded` tinyint(4) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `user_reminded_time` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  PRIMARY KEY (`user_id`),
  UNIQUE KEY `username_clean` (`username_clean`),
  KEY `user_birthday` (`user_birthday`),
  KEY `user_email_hash` (`user_email_hash`),
  KEY `user_type` (`user_type`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=5056 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_bin

Answer 1

The reason is that the WHERE condition:

WHERE user_id = (SELECT (FLOOR(RAND() * (5050 - 50 + 1)) + 50))

is evaluated once per row. So, for every row, a new call to RAND() is made and thus the query can return 0, 1, 2, 3 or more rows. There is a (albeit very small) chance that the query will return all rows of the table!

A similar problem with a DELETE statement, where the call to RAND() was in the ORDER BY clause: Problem with MySQL subquery

---

If you want the query to never return more than 1 row, you can evaluate the random number before the query, so the RAND() is called once:

SET @random_number = FLOOR(RAND() * (5050 - 50 + 1)) + 50 ;
SELECT username FROM phpbb_users WHERE user_id = @random_number ;

As @a1ex07 mentioned, you could also use a derived table:

SELECT u.username 
FROM
    (SELECT FLOOR(RAND() * (5050 - 50 + 1)) + 50 AS random_number) AS r
  JOIN 
    phpbb_users AS u
      ON u.user_id = r.random_number ;

---

As a warning though, I can't find any documentation for this behaviour so it's quite possible that it may change in future versions (only tested in 5.1 and 5.5 versions.) The various optimizer enhancements in versions 5.6, 5.7 and MariaDB (5.1, 5.3+) may have already altered this behaviour.