How to Find a random winner

[bbcardguy]

I have a database of customers and prospects. If they reply to an ad they will get entered to win something. How do I track this with the intent to pick a random winner, and how do I pick the winner at random?

Thanks in advance for any help. Sorry were still on 5.0 v3

[comment]

See if this helps. The syntax is for version 7 and higher, but I think the principle is quite clear.

[bbcardguy]

thanks but I could not get the commands to match.

[comment]

OK, try something like:

Find All

Set Field [ gWinner, Int ( Random * Status (CurrentFoundCount) ) + 1

Go to Record [ gWinner ]

Set Field [ IsWinner , 1 ]

This is just a basic sketch. Instead of finding all records, you could start by searching for only those who have entered. Or you could have a related file for the entries - so you can keep history of mutiple draws. You could keep the winner's ID in a global, instead of marking the record. And so on...