paginating

Pagination refers to dividing content into discrete pages or sections. It is widely used in websites, applications, and documents to manage large datasets, improve perceived performance, and enhance readability. By presenting a subset of items at a time, pagination helps users navigate results without loading everything at once.

In web contexts, pagination typically provides navigation controls such as first, previous, next, last, and numbered pages. It can be implemented on the server, client, or a mix of both. There are two common data pagination strategies: offset-based and keyset (cursor) pagination. Offset-based pagination queries a page by using an offset and limit, for example selecting 20 items with LIMIT 20 OFFSET 100. This is simple to implement but can be slow for large offsets and may yield unstable results if the underlying data changes. Keyset pagination uses a defined sort key (such as a numeric id) and fetches the next set with conditions like where id > last_id, ordered by id. It scales better for large datasets but can complicate navigation to arbitrary pages.

Infinite scrolling is a related pattern that continuously loads more content as the user scrolls. It can improve engagement and reduce initial page load, but it may complicate bookmarking, sharing specific content, and accessibility if not implemented carefully.

Print and document pagination refers to page breaking and sequencing for physical output, including page numbers, headers, and footers. Accessibility and search engine considerations emphasize descriptive link text, semantic markup, keyboard operability, and stable, discoverable URLs to ensure usable navigation and indexing.