Why We Use Pagination
Without pagination we will have to get all the resullts and display in a single page . It takes lot of load time and also page scroll gets very
long.

Pagination Demo

class Pagination {
    public $recordsPerPage;  // Number of Items to be displayed in a Single Page
    public $totalRecords;   // Total number of items returned from the sql query
    public $firstLink;
    public $lastLink;
    public $pages;        // Number of pages from the query - $totalRecords / $recordsPerPage
    public $previous;     // Number of the previous page
    public $next;         // Number of the next page
    public $currentPage;  // Number of the current page
    public $numLinks;  // Number of pages to display after and before current page
    public $paginateStart;   // Starting value of the list
    public $paginationBar;  // Html string generated for pagination
}

Then we have to initialize the variables and do the calculations before preparing the Pagination Links. I have done this inside the generateLinks method in the Pagination class.

public function generateLinks($totalRecords, $recordsPerPage, $numLinks, $current=1) {
                if ($totalRecords > 0) {
                        $this->pages = ceil($totalRecords / $recordsPerPage);
                } else {
                        $this->pages = 0;
                }
                $this->currentPage = $current;
                $this->previous = $current - 1;
                $this->next = $current + 1;
                $this->numLinks = $numLinks;
                $this->recordsPerPage = $recordsPerPage;
                $this->paginateStart = ($this->currentPage - 1) * $this->recordsPerPage;
}

• We have to pass the values for number of records returned from sql query , records per page , number of pages before and after current page and current page number to the generateLinks function.
• Then if the number of records is greater than 0 we calculate the number of pages using $totalRecords / $recordsPerPage and getting the ceil value.
• If Number of records is 0 we dont have any pages or pagination links.

Once we initialize variables properly we can generate the links for the pagination buttons using following methods.

                                    
                        $str = "
";
                        $str .= $this->generatePreviousLink();
                        $str .= $this->generateBackwardLinks();
                        $str .= $this->generateCurrentPage();
                        $str .= $this->generateForwardLinks();
                        $str.= $this->generateNextLink();
                        $str .= '
';
                        $this->paginationBar = $str;

• Above code will generate the necessary html code for the pagination links.
• Seperate methods are used to generate links for each functionality.
• Ex: generatePreviousLink() method will generate the link for the previos page.

All the functions mentioned in the previos section works in same structure. So i am going to explain functionality of generatePreviousLink function.

private function generatePreviousLink() {
                if ($this->pages > 0) {
                        if( ($this->currentPage - 1) >= 1 ) {
                                $previousLink = "
previous')>Previous 
";
                                return $previousLink;
                        }else {
                                return '';
                        }
                }else {
                        return '';
                }
        }

• First we check if number of pages greater than 0.
• Then we check if the current page is the first page of the list. If so we dont have to create a previos link. Otherwise we create the link for the previos button.

      if(isset ($_GET['page'])) {
                        loadpaginate($_GET['page']);
                }else {
                        loadpaginate();
                }

                function loadpaginate($page=1) {
                        $result=mysql_query("select description from title");
                        $numrow=mysql_num_rows($result);

                        $paginater =  new Pagination();
                        $paginater->generateLinks($numrow, 4, 2,$page);
                        $searchResult = generateSearchResults($paginater->paginateStart ,  $paginater->recordsPerPage);


                        $out= "
";
                        $out.= "
Users
";
                        while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($searchResult)) {
                                $out.= "
".$row['description']."
";
                        }

                        $out.= $paginater->paginationBar;

                        
                        $out.= "
";
                        echo $out;

                }

                function generateSearchResults($limit=0, $offset=10) {


                        $searchResult = array();

                        $sql = "select description from title limit $limit,$offset";
                        $res1 = mysql_query($sql);
                        return $res1;
                }

We can create a simple pagination library to use in your projects using the above code. Complete code for this article is provided in the Source Code section. Enjoy using it in your projects and feel free to comment on advantages , disadvantages and suggestions and any difficulties in using this library in different frameworks.

class Pagination {
        public $recordsPerPage;
        public $totalRecords;
        public $firstLink;
        public $lastLink;
        public $pages;
        public $previous;
        public $next;
        public $currentPage;
        public $numLinks;
        public $paginateStart;
        public $paginationBar;

        public function generateLinks($totalRecords,$recordsPerPage,$numLinks,$current=1){

                if ($totalRecords > 0) {
                        $this->pages = ceil($totalRecords / $recordsPerPage);
                } else {
                        $this->pages = 0;
                }

                $this->currentPage = $current;
                $this->previous = $current - 1;
                $this->next = $current + 1;
                $this->numLinks = $numLinks;
                $this->recordsPerPage = $recordsPerPage;
                $this->paginateStart = ($this->currentPage - 1) * $this->recordsPerPage;

                $str = "
";
                //$str .= $this->generateFirstLink();
                $str .= $this->generatePreviousLink();

                $str .= $this->generateBackwardLinks();
                $str .= $this->generateCurrentPage();
                $str .= $this->generateForwardLinks();

                $str.= $this->generateNextLink();
                //$str .= $this->generateLastLink();
                $str .= '
';
                $this->paginationBar = $str;
        }

        

        private function generateNextLink() {
                if ($this->pages > 0) {
                        if( ($this->pages - $this->currentPage) >= 1 ) {
                                $nextLink = "
next')>Next
";
                                return $nextLink;
                        }else {
                                return '';
                        }
                }else {
                        return '';
                }
        }

        private function generatePreviousLink() {
                if ($this->pages > 0) {
                        if( ($this->currentPage - 1) >= 1 ) {
                                $previousLink = "
previous')>Previous
";
                                return $previousLink;
                        }else {
                                return '';
                        }
                }else {
                        return '';
                }
        }

        private function generateFirstLink() {
                if ($this->pages > 0) {
                        if( ($this->currentPage) > 1 ) {
                                $previousLink = "
First
";
                                return $previousLink;
                        }else {
                                return '';
                        }
                }else {
                        return '';
                }
        }

        private function generateLastLink() {
                if ($this->pages > 0) {
                        if( ($this->currentPage) != $this->pages ) {
                                $previousLink = "
pages')>Last
";
                                return $previousLink;
                        }else {
                                return '';
                        }
                }else {
                        return '';
                }
        }

        private function generateCurrentPage() {
                return "
currentPage')>$this->currentPage
";
        }

        private function generateForwardLinks() {
                if ($this->pages > 0) {
                        $forwardLink = '';

                        $forwardLinkLength = ($this->currentPage+$this->numLinks > $this->pages)? $this->pages :
                                                                                        ($this->numLinks+$this->currentPage);

                        for ($i = ($this->currentPage+1); $i <= ($forwardLinkLength); $i++) {
                                $forwardLink.= "
$i
";
                        }
                        return $forwardLink;
                }else {
                        return '';
                }
        }

        private function generateBackwardLinks() {
                if ($this->pages > 0) {
                        $backLink = '';

                        $backLinkLength = ($this->currentPage-$this->numLinks < 1)? '1' :
                                                                                        ($this->currentPage-$this->numLinks);

                        for ($i = ($backLinkLength); $i <= ($this->currentPage-1); $i++) {
                                $backLink.= "
$i
";
                        }
                        return $backLink;
                }else {
                        return '';
                }
        }

}