Displaying results from mysql database gradually - php

Question

So i'm working with huge MYSQL database of english words. the list has upwards of 180k words. Im trying to run a query, and then compute something using every word in the database. The problem is the database is so big, and it seems to be freezing my browser (Im working locally with MAMP). Is there a way I can do five queries at a time, instead of trying to run through the whole thing, so i can see the results coming in gradually in my browser? Heres the code:
<?php
require 'class.thing.php';
require 'db_config.php';
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM words") or die ("Could not complete query");
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
$word = $row['word'];
$compute = $word."thing";
$finished = new method( $compute );
if ($finished->successfull()) {
echo "<br/>";
echo "worked!";
echo "<br/>";
} else {
echo "uh oh..";
}
}
?>
** im looking for something like:
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM words") or die ("Could not complete query LIMIT 0,5");
get results
wait 5 seconds
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM words") or die ("Could not complete query LIMIT 0,5");
get results
etc...

Answer 1

You should take a look at this related question:
What is the best way to paginate results in SQL Server
Note that you can compare words in SQL alphabetically (check whether your settings use case sensitive sorting or not), so you can do something like:
SELECT * FROM words WHERE word <= "ferrous" ORDER BY word
If you're using an auto-incrementing id, you can use that to subdivide as well (it'd probably be easier).
EDIT:
As pointed out below, you can use LIMIT in MySQL.
Example:
SELECT * FROM words LIMIT 0, 1000
(This would display the first 1000 results).