在表中存储数据但随机ID检索的最简单数据库解决方案是什么？

Question

I am creating a web based quiz (front end done in HTML and CSS), where the questions will be stored by topic. (about 12 or so questions per topic) I want to randomize the selection of the questions within each topic. Each question will have a picture and audio file. I also want the wrong answers to be randomly chosen from within each topic.

As there will be many topics, I want the table names to be stored as Character Variables/Aliases that can be chosen by the user. For example, if they choose the Geography button, then the Geography table will be selected.
The random ID would be chosen, and the corresponding picture and audio file would be retrieved. I can then craft one nice looking module and run all of the questions in it.

I haven't been able to find an example of how this could be done with PHP and MYSQL. From the examples I have seen, the SELECT command may require the actual table name rather than a Character Variable containing the name. Also, the way PHP retrieves data seems too convoluted from the examples I have seen. There seems to be at least 3 steps in the process.

Is PHP/MySQL the simplest option, or are there better options that would suit my project with other database systems and languages?

If anyone could make a snippet of PHP code that would work, I would be very grateful.

Answer 1

PHP and a SQL database (like MySQL, or SQLite, or whatever) is fine for this. You just need to design the database properly.

All of the questions are the same type of data, so they shouldn't be split into multiple tables. Use a single table, with the topic as one of the columns in that table; you can pick a random question from a specific topic using a query along the lines of:

SELECT ... FROM questions WHERE topic = ? ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1