PHP pagination for loop (trying to limit the pagination tabs) - php

Question

I am trying to make a pagination for my project,
Im am trying to learn some new skills and decided to start an old project i started a while ago and thought everything was going well and thought i had succeeded...
With the example data I have in my database everything seemed perfect, however when I imported more example data I noticed the pagination tabs were getting very long
currently i have them working as 1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10
but after i imported more data the list went onto 50+
the PHP code i am using is
<?php
for ($x = 1; $x <= $page_neeed; $x++) {
if ($page==$x){$class="active";}else{$class="";};
echo "<li class='page-item $class'><a class='page-link' href='example.php?page=$x'>$x</a></li>";
}
?>
I have had a look at other sites and decided to have something like 1|2|3|...|50|51|52
For the life of me, I can't get my head around how to approach this.
if you could point me in the right direction that would be fantastic as I don't know what to even search to try to solve this.

Answer 1

After digging around with the links that Tim Lewis gave me in the comments on the OP I soon realised it was more complex than I first thought.
But....
I have managed to get a better pagination than I first had, almost the way I need.
I thought I would post the code here in case someone else could use it.
<?php
$max = $pages_needed-4;
//if we need more than 6 pages
if ($pages_needed > 6) {
//seeing if the current page is between 5 and the last page -4
if (($page >= 5 && $page < $max)) {
$lower_page = $page - 2;
$next_page = $page + 1;
for ($x = $lower_page; $x <= $next_page; $x++) {
if ($page == $x) {
$class = "active";
} else {
$class = "";
}
echo "<li class='page-item $class'><a class='page-link' href='$share_url/category/$category_slug?page=$x'>$x</a></li>";
}
echo "<li class='page-item'><span class='page-link'>...</span></li>";
echo "<li class='page-item $class'><a class='page-link' href='$share_url/category/$category_slug?page=$pages_needed'>$pages_needed</a></li>";
};
//seeing if the current page is near the end
if (($page >= $max && $page < $pages_needed+1)) {
$lower_page = $page - 2;
$next_page = $page + 1;
echo "<li class='page-item'><a class='page-link' href='$share_url/category/$category_slug?page=1'>1</a></li>";
echo "<li class='page-item'><span class='page-link'>...</span></li>";
for ($x = $lower_page; $x <= $pages_needed; $x++) {
if ($page == $x) {
$class = "active";
} else {
$class = "";
}
echo "<li class='page-item $class'><a class='page-link' href='$share_url/category/$category_slug?page=$x'>$x</a></li>";
}
};
//seeing if the current page is near the start
if (($page >= 1 && $page < 5)) {
$lower_page = $page - 2;
$next_page = $page + 1;
for ($x = 1; $x <= 5; $x++) {
if ($page==$x){$class="active";}else{$class="";};
echo "<li class='page-item $class'><a class='page-link' href='$share_url/category/$category_slug?page=$x'>$x</a></li>";
}
echo "<li class='page-item'><span class='page-link'>...</span></li>";
echo "<li class='page-item $class'><a class='page-link' href='$share_url/category/$category_slug?page=$pages_needed'>$pages_needed</a></li>";
};
}
//if we need more less 6 pages
else{
for ($x = 1; $x <= $pages_needed; $x++) {
if ($page==$x){$class="active";}else{$class="";};
echo "<li class='page-item $class'><a class='page-link' href='$share_url/category/$category_slug?page=$x'>$x</a></li>";
}
}
?>
This alows me to have 1|2|3|4|5|6
When on page 5 it goes 3|4|[5]|6|...|30|
On the last 6 pages it gives you 1|...|26|27|28|29|30
I'm pretty sure someone could simplify this but I'm still learning and hope this helps someone else.