>>>Hi
>>>
>>>I have a list of individuals with a key of individual_ref
>>>those individuals can be linked to a partner by family_ref
>>>
>>>so I would have a row
>>>
>>>individual_ref family ref
>>>58056 174279
>>>174279 58056
>>>
>>>I am selecting a random number of individual but I don't want partners to be selected
>>>
>>>How can I do that.
>>>
>>>Thanks
>>>
>>>Nick
>>
>>
>>UPDATE:
>>I just saw that your data has cross reference. How do you know what is partner and what is family?
>>From the data you provided which record you want?
>
>It doesn't matter
>
>I am randomly selecting and I don't want the random selection to pull out someone and their partner.
>
>hanks


Something like:

IF NOT EXISTS(SELECT * FROM sys.tables WHERE NAME = 'Test')
BEGIN
CREATE TABLE Test (PartnerId int, FamilyId int)

INSERT INTO test VALUES(1,2)
INSERT INTO test VALUES(2,1)
INSERT INTO test VALUES(3,4)
INSERT INTO test VALUES(4,3)
INSERT INTO test VALUES(5,6)
INSERT INTO test VALUES(6,5)
END
GO


;WITH cteTest(PartnerId, FamilyId)
AS
( SELECT TOP 4 * FROM Test ORDER BY NEWID())

SELECT cteTest.* FROM cteTest
LEFT JOIN cteTest ctt ON cteTest.PartnerId = ctt.FamilyId
WHERE ctt.FamilyId IS NULL

?

There is no guarantee that you always will have 4 records though.