title: MySQL query with limit and large offset taking forever
body: <p>I have a directory that I've built with the PHP script below and it uses pagination to get 1002 results per page.  The problem is that the farther you get in the pages, the longer they take to load. For example, page 1 loads significantly faster than page 10,000.</p>
  
  <p>I'm guessing I did something wrong with the query and instead of just selecting the 1002 results that it should be limited, it's also cycling through all the ones from before it as well.  If someone could post the code that needs to be fixed, that would be great!</p>
  
  <p>Thanks for your time and help!</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?php include("websites/header.html"); ?&gt;
  
  &lt;center&gt;
  &lt;?php
      /*
          Place code to connect to your DB here.
      */
      include('websites/database.php');   // include your code to connect to DB.
  
      $tbl_name="list";       //your table name
      // How many adjacent pages should be shown on each side?
      $adjacents = 5;
  
      /* 
         First get total number of rows in data table. 
         If you have a WHERE clause in your query, make sure you mirror it here.
      */
      $query = "SELECT COUNT(*) as num FROM $tbl_name";
      $total_pages = mysql_fetch_array(mysql_query($query));
      $total_pages = $total_pages[num];
  
      /* Setup vars for query. */
      $targetpage = "websites.php";   //your file name  (the name of this file)
      $limit = 1002;                              //how many items to show per page
      $page = $_GET['page'];
      if($page) 
          $start = ($page - 1) * $limit;          //first item to display on this page
      else
          $start = 0;                             //if no page var is given, set start to 0
  
      /* Get data. */
      $sql = "SELECT website FROM $tbl_name LIMIT $start, $limit";
      $result = mysql_query($sql);
  
      /* Setup page vars for display. */
      if ($page == 0) $page = 1;                  //if no page var is given, default to 1.
      $prev = $page - 1;                          //previous page is page - 1
      $next = $page + 1;                          //next page is page + 1
      $lastpage = ceil($total_pages/$limit);      //lastpage is = total pages / items per page, rounded up.
      $lpm1 = $lastpage - 1;                      //last page minus 1
  
      /* 
          Now we apply our rules and draw the pagination object. 
          We're actually saving the code to a variable in case we want to draw it more than once.
      */
      $pagination = "";
      if($lastpage &gt; 1)
      {   
          $pagination .= "&lt;div class=\"pagination2\"&gt;";
          //previous button
          if ($page &gt; 1) 
              $pagination.= "&lt;a href=\"$targetpage?page=$prev\"&gt;&amp;lt; previous&lt;/a&gt;";
          else
              $pagination.= "&lt;span class=\"disabled\"&gt;&amp;lt; previous&lt;/span&gt;";  
  
          //pages 
          if ($lastpage &lt; 7 + ($adjacents * 2))   //not enough pages to bother breaking it up
          {   
              for ($counter = 1; $counter &lt;= $lastpage; $counter++)
              {
                  if ($counter == $page)
                      $pagination.= "&lt;span class=\"current\"&gt;$counter&lt;/span&gt;";
                  else
                      $pagination.= "&lt;a href=\"$targetpage?page=$counter\"&gt;$counter&lt;/a&gt;";                 
              }
          }
          elseif($lastpage &gt; 5 + ($adjacents * 2))    //enough pages to hide some
          {
              //close to beginning; only hide later pages
              if($page &lt; 1 + ($adjacents * 2))        
              {
                  for ($counter = 1; $counter &lt; 4 + ($adjacents * 2); $counter++)
                  {
                      if ($counter == $page)
                          $pagination.= "&lt;span class=\"current\"&gt;$counter&lt;/span&gt;";
                      else
                          $pagination.= "&lt;a href=\"$targetpage?page=$counter\"&gt;$counter&lt;/a&gt;";                 
                  }
                  $pagination.= "...";
                  $pagination.= "&lt;a href=\"$targetpage?page=$lpm1\"&gt;$lpm1&lt;/a&gt;";
                  $pagination.= "&lt;a href=\"$targetpage?page=$lastpage\"&gt;$lastpage&lt;/a&gt;";       
              }
              //in middle; hide some front and some back
              elseif($lastpage - ($adjacents * 2) &gt; $page &amp;&amp; $page &gt; ($adjacents * 2))
              {
                  $pagination.= "&lt;a href=\"$targetpage?page=1\"&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;";
                  $pagination.= "&lt;a href=\"$targetpage?page=2\"&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;";
                  $pagination.= "...";
                  for ($counter = $page - $adjacents; $counter &lt;= $page + $adjacents; $counter++)
                  {
                      if ($counter == $page)
                          $pagination.= "&lt;span class=\"current\"&gt;$counter&lt;/span&gt;";
                      else
                          $pagination.= "&lt;a href=\"$targetpage?page=$counter\"&gt;$counter&lt;/a&gt;";                 
                  }
                  $pagination.= "...";
                  $pagination.= "&lt;a href=\"$targetpage?page=$lpm1\"&gt;$lpm1&lt;/a&gt;";
                  $pagination.= "&lt;a href=\"$targetpage?page=$lastpage\"&gt;$lastpage&lt;/a&gt;";       
              }
              //close to end; only hide early pages
              else
              {
                  $pagination.= "&lt;a href=\"$targetpage?page=1\"&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;";
                  $pagination.= "&lt;a href=\"$targetpage?page=2\"&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;";
                  $pagination.= "...";
                  for ($counter = $lastpage - (2 + ($adjacents * 2)); $counter &lt;= $lastpage; $counter++)
                  {
                      if ($counter == $page)
                          $pagination.= "&lt;span class=\"current\"&gt;$counter&lt;/span&gt;";
                      else
                          $pagination.= "&lt;a href=\"$targetpage?page=$counter\"&gt;$counter&lt;/a&gt;";                 
                  }
              }
          }
  
          //next button
          if ($page &lt; $counter - 1) 
              $pagination.= "&lt;a href=\"$targetpage?page=$next\"&gt;next &amp;gt;&lt;/a&gt;";
          else
              $pagination.= "&lt;span class=\"disabled\"&gt;next &amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;";
          $pagination.= "&lt;/div&gt;\n";       
      }
  ?&gt;
  
      &lt;?php
  $i = 0;
  echo '&lt;table style="table-layout:fixed; width:1050px;"&gt;&lt;tr&gt;'; 
          while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
  {
      $i ++;
      if ($i&lt;=3)
      {
        echo '&lt;td style="word-wrap: break-word;"&gt;
           &lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.mywebsite.com/check.php?site='.strtolower($row[website]).'"&gt;'.strtolower($row[website]).'&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
         &lt;/td&gt;'; 
      }
  
      else
      {       
        echo '&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;';
        echo '&lt;td style="word-wrap: break-word;"&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.mywebsite.com/check.php?site='.strtolower($row[website]).'"&gt;'.strtolower($row[website]).'&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;'; 
        $i = 0;
      $i++;
     }
  }  
  echo '&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;';
      ?&gt;
  
  &lt;?=$pagination?&gt;
  &lt;/center&gt;
  
  &lt;?php include("websites/footer.html"); ?&gt;
  </code></pre>