Output random blocks from a matrix but without the first

Question

I have quotes inside a global matrix which i want to output randomly on the homepage but without the first quote-block. this does not work:

{% set quotes = city.cityBlocks.offset(1) %}
{% set randomQuotes = quotes.limit(1).order('RAND()') %}

the offset in 'quotes' works fine but the first block is still in randomQuotes anyway.

Answer 1

That query would basically tell MySQL to do this:

1. Shuffle the blocks
2. Return the second one

Since the shuffling happens before the offset/limit params get applied, they can’t be used to exclude the first block, since the first block will already be put in some random position by that point.

Instead you should get the ID of the first block, and exclude it using that:

{% set firstBlockId = city.cityBlocks.limit(1).ids()|first %}

{% if firstBlockId %}
    {% set randomQuotes = city.cityBlocks.id('not '~firstBlockId).order('RAND()') %}
    ...
{% else %}
    There were no blocks...
{% endif %}

Answer 2

okay, shuffle seems to work: first set these:

{% set quotes = city.cityBlocks.offset(1) %}
{% set randomQuotes = shuffle(quotes) %}

then slice the the for loop like this

{% for block in randomQuotes|slice(1,1) %}
...
{% endfor %}