Limit the number of data choices from a MySQL database
There is a LIMIT clause in MySQL that lets you tell it how many records to return.
The LIMIT clause makes it easy to code multi-page results or pagination in SQL, which is very useful for large tables. When a lot of records are returned, it can slow things down.
Let\’s say we want to get all of the records from 1 to 50 from a table called \”result.\” This is how the SQL query would then look:
$sql = \”SELECT * FROM results LIMIT 50\”;
When the above SQL query is run, the first 50 records will be returned.
What if we want to pick records between 26 and 35?
Mysql also has a way to handle this, which is to use the OFFSET command.
In the SQL query below, it says \”return only 10 records, start on record 26 (OFFSET 25)\”:
$sql = \”SELECT * FROM results LIMIT 20 OFFSET 25\”;
You could also get the same result with a shorter sentence:
$sql = \”SELECT * FROM results LIMIT 25, 20\”;
When you use a comma, the numbers are written in the wrong order.