Limiting pages in php pagination - php

Question

I want to limit the number of pages displayed on my pagination php script below. This was a script made a few years back for me, and although I have read through similar problems on here, their coding is very different.
Any help with this would be really appreciated.
Here is my current script:
<?php
if ($max_pages>1) {
echo "<br>";
if ($page>0) {
echo 'Previous';
}
for ($x=0;$x<$max_pages;$x++) {
if ($page<>$x) {
echo ''.($x+1).'';
}
else {
echo '<span class="pagination">'.($x+1).'</span>';
}
}
if (($page+1<>$max_pages)) {
echo 'Next';
}
}?>

Answer 1

Your current script cycles $x between 0 and $max_pages.
What you can do is first replace them with $from_page and $to_page:
$from_page = 0;
$to_page = $max_pages;
...
for ($x=$from_page; $x < $to_page; $x++)
at which point the script will work just as before.
Now if you want to only display from $N pages before to $N pages after $page,
$N = 5; // display 5+5+1 = 11 pages
$from_page = $page - $N; if ($from_page < 0) $from_page = 0;
$to_page = $from_page + 2*$N+1; if ($to_page > $max_pages) $to_page = $max_pages;
$from_page = $to_page - 2*$N-1; if ($from_page < 0) $from_page = 0;
Not the most elegant way perhaps, but it will try to fit an 11-page area centered on the current page. You may want to also display a link to pages 0 and $max_pages-1.
MRE version
<?php
if ($max_pages>1)
{
$N = 5; // display 5+5+1 = 11 pages
$to_page = min($max_pages, max(0, $page - $N) + 2*$N+1);
$from_page = max($to_page - 2*$N-1, 0);
echo "<br>";
if ($page > 0)
{
echo 'Previous';
}
for ($x=$from_page; $x < $to_page; $x++) {
if ($page != $x) {
echo ''.($x+1).'';
}
else {
echo '<span class="pagination">'.($x+1).'</span>';
}
}
if (($page+1<>$max_pages)) {
echo 'Next';
}
}?>