How do I do pagination in ASP.NET MVC?

Question

What is the most preferred and easiest way to do pagination in ASP.NET MVC? I.e. what is the easiest way to break up a list into several browsable pages.

As an example lets say I get a list of elements from a database/gateway/repository like this:

public ActionResult ListMyItems() {     List<Item> list = ItemDB.GetListOfItems();     ViewData["ItemList"] = list;      return View(); } 

For simplicity's sake I'd like to specify just a page number for my action as parameter. Like this:

public ActionResult ListMyItems(int page) {    //... } 

Answer 1

Well, what is the data source? Your action could take a few defaulted arguments, i.e.

ActionResult Search(string query, int startIndex, int pageSize) {...} 

defaulted in the routes setup so that startIndex is 0 and pageSize is (say) 20:

        routes.MapRoute("Search", "Search/{query}/{startIndex}",                         new                         {                             controller = "Home", action = "Search",                             startIndex = 0, pageSize = 20                         }); 

To split the feed, you can use LINQ quite easily:

var page = source.Skip(startIndex).Take(pageSize); 

(or do a multiplication if you use "pageNumber" rather than "startIndex")

With LINQ-toSQL, EF, etc - this should "compose" down to the database, too.

You should then be able to use action-links to the next page (etc):

<%=Html.ActionLink("next page", "Search", new {                 query, startIndex = startIndex + pageSize, pageSize }) %>