Page Numbers Lie: Offset vs Cursor Pagination

Cursor-based pagination is indeed the preferred method for handling dynamic data sets where items can be added or removed at any time. Let’s break down why it works better than offset-based pagination in scenarios like social media newsfeeds.

Why Cursors Fix Offset Problems

Stability Against Data Changes

• Insertions: When a new item is inserted into the feed, an offset-based approach would require recalculating all subsequent offsets to ensure correct ordering. With cursors, you simply start from the last seen cursor and fetch items after that point.

  Example:

  • If your last fetched post had a timestamp of 2024-01-01T12:00:00Z (encoded as "MjAyNC0wMS0xMVQxMDowMDowMFo=") and a new post is added before it, the cursor still points to the correct starting point.

  sql
   
  1SELECT * FROM posts WHERE created_at < '2024-01-01T12:00:00Z' ORDER BY created_at DESC LIMIT 5;

• Deletions: If an item is deleted, offset-based pagination

Read the full article at DEV Community

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