Pagination & Sorting

Efficiently handle large datasets with Ramify JS's built-in pagination and sorting capabilities.

Sorting

You can sort results in ascending or descending order using sortBy() and reverse().

// Sort by any field (ascending)
const sorted = db.users.sortBy('age').toArray();

// Sort in descending order
const reversed = db.users.sortBy('age').reverse().toArray();

// Combine with where queries
const managers = db.users.where('roles').anyOf(['manager']).sortBy('name').toArray();

[!TIP] Inconsistent Ordering: Always sort by a unique field (like id) for stable pagination, especially if the secondary sort field (like age) contains duplicate values.

[!NOTE] You can sort by any field. Sorting uses JavaScript's Array.sort() and is not optimized by indexes. However, indexing fields used in where() queries will improve the filtering performance before sorting is applied.

Offset Pagination

The most common pagination method, using limit() and offset(). Perfect for data tables and traditional page-based UIs.

// First page (10 items)
const page1 = db.users.sortBy('id').limit(10).offset(0).toArray();

// Second page
const page2 = db.users.sortBy('id').limit(10).offset(10).toArray();

// With filtering
const activePage1 = db.users
	.where({ status: 'active' })
	.sortBy('createdAt')
	.limit(20)
	.offset(0)
	.toArray();

[!CAUTION] Large Offsets: Avoid using offset(10000) or larger on huge datasets. Ramify JS must iterate through all offset records, which can impact performance. Use cursor-based pagination for deep pagination.

Cursor-Based Pagination

Alternatively you can use cursor pagination if you are data is likely to change often.

const firstPageByDate = db.users.sortBy('createdAt').limit(10).toArray();
const lastTimestamp = firstPageByDate[firstPageByDate.length - 1].createdAt;

// Get IDs where createdAt > lastTimestamp, then fetch those records
const usersAfter = db.users
	.filter((u) => u.createdAt > lastTimestamp)
	.sortBy('createdAt')
	.limit(10)
	.toArray();