PaginationLink to this heading

Django provides a few classes that help you manage paginated data – that is, data that’s split across several pages, with “Previous/Next” links. These classes live in django/core/paginator.py.

ExampleLink to this heading

Give Paginator a list of objects, plus the number of items you’d like to have on each page, and it gives you methods for accessing the items for each page:

Code
>>> from django.core.paginator import Paginator
>>> objects = ['john', 'paul', 'george', 'ringo']
>>> p = Paginator(objects, 2)

>>> p.count
4
>>> p.num_pages
2
>>> p.page_range
[1, 2]

>>> page1 = p.page(1)
>>> page1
<Page 1 of 2>
>>> page1.object_list
['john', 'paul']

>>> page2 = p.page(2)
>>> page2.object_list
['george', 'ringo']
>>> page2.has_next()
False
>>> page2.has_previous()
True
>>> page2.has_other_pages()
True
>>> page2.next_page_number()
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
EmptyPage: That page contains no results
>>> page2.previous_page_number()
1
>>> page2.start_index() # The 1-based index of the first item on this page
3
>>> page2.end_index() # The 1-based index of the last item on this page
4

>>> p.page(0)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
EmptyPage: That page number is less than 1
>>> p.page(3)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
EmptyPage: That page contains no results

Using Paginator in a viewLink to this heading

Here’s a slightly more complex example using Paginator in a view to paginate a queryset. We give both the view and the accompanying template to show how you can display the results. This example assumes you have a Contacts model that has already been imported.

The view function looks like this:

Code
from django.core.paginator import Paginator, EmptyPage, PageNotAnInteger

def listing(request):
    contact_list = Contacts.objects.all()
    paginator = Paginator(contact_list, 25) # Show 25 contacts per page

    page = request.GET.get('page')
    try:
        contacts = paginator.page(page)
    except PageNotAnInteger:
        # If page is not an integer, deliver first page.
        contacts = paginator.page(1)
    except EmptyPage:
        # If page is out of range (e.g. 9999), deliver last page of results.
        contacts = paginator.page(paginator.num_pages)

    return render_to_response('list.html', {"contacts": contacts})

In the template list.html, you’ll want to include navigation between pages along with any interesting information from the objects themselves:

Code
{% for contact in contacts %}
    {# Each "contact" is a Contact model object. #}
    {{ contact.full_name|upper }}<br />
    ...
{% endfor %}

<div class="pagination">
    <span class="step-links">
        {% if contacts.has_previous %}
            <a href="?page={{ contacts.previous_page_number }}">previous</a>
        {% endif %}

        <span class="current">
            Page {{ contacts.number }} of {{ contacts.paginator.num_pages }}.
        </span>

        {% if contacts.has_next %}
            <a href="?page={{ contacts.next_page_number }}">next</a>
        {% endif %}
    </span>
</div>

Paginator objectsLink to this heading

The Paginator class has this constructor:

class Paginator(object_list, per_page, orphans=0, allow_empty_first_page=True)Link to this definition

Required argumentsLink to this heading

object_list

A list, tuple, Django QuerySet, or other sliceable object with a count() or __len__() method.

per_page

The maximum number of items to include on a page, not including orphans (see the orphans optional argument below).

Optional argumentsLink to this heading

orphans

The minimum number of items allowed on the last page, defaults to zero. Use this when you don’t want to have a last page with very few items. If the last page would normally have a number of items less than or equal to orphans, then those items will be added to the previous page (which becomes the last page) instead of leaving the items on a page by themselves. For example, with 23 items, per_page=10, and orphans=3, there will be two pages; the first page with 10 items and the second (and last) page with 13 items.

allow_empty_first_page

Whether or not the first page is allowed to be empty. If False and object_list is empty, then an EmptyPage error will be raised.

MethodsLink to this heading

Paginator.page(number)Link to this definition

Returns a Page object with the given 1-based index. Raises InvalidPage if the given page number doesn’t exist.

AttributesLink to this heading

Paginator.countLink to this definition

The total number of objects, across all pages.

Paginator.num_pagesLink to this definition

The total number of pages.

Paginator.page_rangeLink to this definition

A 1-based range of page numbers, e.g., [1, 2, 3, 4].

InvalidPage exceptionsLink to this heading

exception InvalidPageLink to this definition

A base class for exceptions raised when a paginator is passed an invalid page number.

The Paginator.page() method raises an exception if the requested page is invalid (i.e., not an integer) or contains no objects. Generally, it’s enough to catch the InvalidPage exception, but if you’d like more granularity, you can catch either of the following exceptions:

exception PageNotAnIntegerLink to this definition

Raised when page() is given a value that isn’t an integer.

exception EmptyPageLink to this definition

Raised when page() is given a valid value but no objects exist on that page.

Both of the exceptions are subclasses of InvalidPage, so you can handle them both with a simple except InvalidPage.

Page objectsLink to this heading

You usually won’t construct Page objects by hand – you’ll get them using Paginator.page().

class Page(object_list, number, paginator)Link to this definition

A page acts like a sequence of Page.object_list when using len() or iterating it directly.

MethodsLink to this heading

Page.has_next()Link to this definition

Returns True if there’s a next page.

Page.has_previous()Link to this definition

Returns True if there’s a previous page.

Page.has_other_pages()Link to this definition

Returns True if there’s a next or previous page.

Page.next_page_number()Link to this definition

Returns the next page number. Raises InvalidPage if next page doesn’t exist.

Page.previous_page_number()Link to this definition

Returns the previous page number. Raises InvalidPage if previous page doesn’t exist.

Page.start_index()Link to this definition

Returns the 1-based index of the first object on the page, relative to all of the objects in the paginator’s list. For example, when paginating a list of 5 objects with 2 objects per page, the second page’s start_index() would return 3.

Page.end_index()Link to this definition

Returns the 1-based index of the last object on the page, relative to all of the objects in the paginator’s list. For example, when paginating a list of 5 objects with 2 objects per page, the second page’s end_index() would return 4.

AttributesLink to this heading

Page.object_listLink to this definition

The list of objects on this page.

Page.numberLink to this definition

The 1-based page number for this page.

Page.paginatorLink to this definition

The associated Paginator object.