Offset Pagination

skip is the number of items to skip a certain number of records.

take is the number of items to select a limited range of records.

const users = await prisma.user.findMany({
  skip: 3,
  take: 4,
});

 skip:3
 v  v  v
[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
          ^  ^  ^  ^
            take:4

Implementing pages of results involve skipping the number of pages multiplied by the number of results shown per page.

Sorting and Filtering

Works with sorting and filtering.

const results = await prisma.post.findMany({
  skip: 200,
  take: 20,
  where: {
    email: {
      contains: 'Prisma',
    },
  },
  orderBy: {
    title: 'desc',
  },
})

Cons of Offset Pagination

It's not efficient for large datasets.

• When you have a high number of items to skip, DB needs to traverse by the skip number of records, then take the take number of records.
• e.g. 200K records to skip means DB needs to traverse 200K records, then take 4 records.

Cursor Pagination

Cursor pagination returns a limited range of results starting after a given cursor.

const firstQueryResults = await prisma.post.findMany({
  take: 4,
  where: {
    title: {
      contains: 'Prisma' /* Optional filter */,
    },
  },
  orderBy: {
    id: 'asc',
  },
})

// Bookmark your location in the result set - in this
// case, the ID of the last post in the list of 4.

const lastPostInResults = firstQueryResults[3] // Remember: zero-based index! :)
const myCursor = lastPostInResults.id // Example: 29