Get random item from Doctrine2 repository

getRandomDoctrineItem.php

<?php
use Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager;

/**
 * Retrieve one random item of given class from ORM repository.
 * 
 * @param EntityManager $em    The Entity Manager instance to use
 * @param string        $class The class name to retrieve items from
 * @return object
 */ 
function getRandomDoctrineItem(EntityManager $em, $class)
{
    static $counters = [];

    if (!isset($counters[$class])) {
        $this->counters[$class] = (int) $this->manager->createQuery(
            'SELECT COUNT(c) FROM '. $class .' c'
        )->getSingleScalarResult();
    }

    return $em
        ->createQuery('SELECT c FROM ' . $class .' c ORDER BY c.id ASC')
        ->setMaxResults(1)
        ->setFirstResult(mt_rand(0, $counters[$class] - 1))
        ->getSingleResult()
    ;
}

// Example usage:
$randomItem = getRandomDoctrineItem($em, 'Application\Entity\Post');