Paging Query Results


  • Paging:
    Paging is the process of fetching a subset (a page) of results from a dataset, rather than retrieving the entire results at once. This method enables processing query results one page at a time.

  • Default page size:
    If the client's query definition does Not explicitly specify the page size, the server will default to int.MaxValue (2,147,483,647). In such case, all results will be returned in a single server call.

  • Performance:
    Using paging is beneficial when handling large result datasets, contributing to improved performance.
    See paging and performance here below.

  • Paging policy:
    To prevent executing queries that do not specify a page size, you can set the ThrowIfQueryPageSizeIsNotSet convention, which can be useful during development or testing phases.

  • In this page:


No-paging example

// A simple query without paging:
// ==============================

List<Product> allResults = session
    .Query<Products_ByUnitsInStock.IndexEntry, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
    .Where(x => x.UnitsInStock > 10)
    .OfType<Product>()
    .ToList();

// Executing the query on the Northwind sample data
// will result in all 47 Product documents that match the query predicate.
// A simple query without paging:
// ==============================

List<Product> allResults = await asyncSession
    .Query<Products_ByUnitsInStock.IndexEntry, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
    .Where(x => x.UnitsInStock > 10)
    .OfType<Product>()
    .ToListAsync();

// Executing the query on the Northwind sample data
// will result in all 47 Product documents that match the query predicate.
// A simple DocumentQuery without paging:
// ======================================

List<Product> allResults = session.Advanced
    .DocumentQuery<Products_ByUnitsInStock.IndexEntry, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
    .WhereGreaterThan(x => x.UnitsInStock, 10)
    .OfType<Product>()
    .ToList();

// Executing the query on the Northwind sample data
// will result in all 47 Product documents that match the query predicate.
public class Products_ByUnitsInStock : AbstractIndexCreationTask<Product>
{
    public class IndexEntry
    {
        public int UnitsInStock { get; set; }
    }
    
    public Products_ByUnitsInStock()
    {
        Map = products => from product in products
            select new
            {
                UnitsInStock = product.UnitsInStock
            };
    }
}
from index "Products/ByUnitsInStock"
where UnitsInStock > 10

Paging examples

Retrieve a specific page:

// Retrieve only the 3'rd page - when page size is 10:
// ===================================================

List<Product> thirdPageResults = session
    .Query<Products_ByUnitsInStock.IndexEntry, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
     // Get the query stats if you wish to know the TOTAL number of results
    .Statistics(out QueryStatistics stats)
     // Apply some filtering condition as needed
    .Where(x => x.UnitsInStock > 10)
    .OfType<Product>()
     // Call 'Skip', pass the number of items to skip from the beginning of the result set
     // Skip the first 20 resulting documents
    .Skip(20)
     // Call 'Take' to define the number of documents to return
     // Take up to 10 products => so 10 is the "Page Size"
    .Take(10)
    .ToList();

// When executing this query on the Northwind sample data,
// results will include only 10 Product documents ("products/45-A" to "products/54-A")

int totalResults = stats.TotalResults;

// While the query returns only 10 results,
// `totalResults` will hold the total number of matching documents (47).
// Retrieve only the 3'rd page - when page size is 10:
// ===================================================

List<Product> thirdPageResults = await asyncSession
    .Query<Products_ByUnitsInStock.IndexEntry, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
     // Get the query stats if you wish to know the TOTAL number of results
    .Statistics(out QueryStatistics stats)
     // Apply some filtering condition as needed
    .Where(x => x.UnitsInStock > 10)
    .OfType<Product>()
     // Call 'Skip', pass the number of items to skip from the beginning of the result set
     // Skip the first 20 resulting documents
    .Skip(20)
     // Call 'Take' to define the number of documents to return
     // Take up to 10 products => so 10 is the "Page Size"
    .Take(10)
    .ToListAsync();

// When executing this query on the Northwind sample data,
// results will include only 10 Product documents ("products/45-A" to "products/54-A")

int totalResults = stats.TotalResults;

// While the query returns only 10 results,
// `totalResults` will hold the total number of matching documents (47).
// Retrieve only the 3'rd page - when page size is 10:
// ===================================================

List<Product> thirdPageResults = session.Advanced
    .DocumentQuery<Products_ByUnitsInStock.IndexEntry, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
     // Get the query stats if you wish to know the TOTAL number of results
    .Statistics(out QueryStatistics stats)
     // Apply some filtering condition as needed
    .WhereGreaterThan(x => x.UnitsInStock, 10)
    .OfType<Product>()
     // Call 'Skip', pass the number of items to skip from the beginning of the result set
     // Skip the first 20 resulting documents
    .Skip(20)
     // Call 'Take' to define the number of documents to return
     // Take up to 10 products => so 10 is the "Page Size"
    .Take(10)
    .ToList();

// When executing this query on the Northwind sample data,
// results will include only 10 Product documents ("products/45-A" to "products/54-A")

int totalResults = stats.TotalResults;

// While the query returns only 10 results,
// `totalResults` will hold the total number of matching documents (47).
public class Products_ByUnitsInStock : AbstractIndexCreationTask<Product>
{
    public class IndexEntry
    {
        public int UnitsInStock { get; set; }
    }
    
    public Products_ByUnitsInStock()
    {
        Map = products => from product in products
            select new
            {
                UnitsInStock = product.UnitsInStock
            };
    }
}
from index "Products/ByUnitsInStock"
where UnitsInStock > 10 
limit 20, 10 // skip 20, take 10

Page through all results:

// Query for all results - page by page:
// =====================================

List<Product> pagedResults;
int pageNumber = 0;
int pageSize = 10;
                
do
{
    pagedResults = session
        .Query<Products_ByUnitsInStock.IndexEntry, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
         // Apply some filtering condition as needed
        .Where(x => x.UnitsInStock > 10)
        .OfType<Product>()
         // Skip the number of results that were already fetched
        .Skip(pageNumber * pageSize)
         // Request to get 'pageSize' results
        .Take(pageSize)
        .ToList();
    
    pageNumber++;
    
    // Make any processing needed with the current paged results here
    // ...
}
while (pagedResults.Count > 0); // Fetch next results
// Query for all results - page by page:
// =====================================

List<Product> pagedResults;
int pageNumber = 0;
int pageSize = 10;
                
do
{
    pagedResults = await asyncSession
        .Query<Products_ByUnitsInStock.IndexEntry, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
         // Apply some filtering condition as needed
        .Where(x => x.UnitsInStock > 10)
        .OfType<Product>()
         // Skip the number of results that were already fetched
        .Skip(pageNumber * pageSize)
         // Request to get 'pageSize' results
        .Take(pageSize)
        .ToListAsync();
    
    pageNumber++;
    
    // Make any processing needed with the current paged results here
    // ...
}
while (pagedResults.Count > 0); // Fetch next results
// Query for all results - page by page:
// =====================================

List<Product> pagedResults;
int pageNumber = 0;
int pageSize = 10;
                
do
{
    pagedResults = session.Advanced
        .DocumentQuery<Products_ByUnitsInStock.IndexEntry, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
         // Apply some filtering condition as needed
        .WhereGreaterThan(x => x.UnitsInStock, 10)
        .OfType<Product>()
         // Skip the number of results that were already fetched
        .Skip(pageNumber * pageSize)
         // Request to get 'pageSize' results
        .Take(pageSize)
        .ToList();
    
    pageNumber++;
    
    // Make any processing needed with the current paged results here
    // ...
}
while (pagedResults.Count > 0); // Fetch next results
public class Products_ByUnitsInStock : AbstractIndexCreationTask<Product>
{
    public class IndexEntry
    {
        public int UnitsInStock { get; set; }
    }
    
    public Products_ByUnitsInStock()
    {
        Map = products => from product in products
            select new
            {
                UnitsInStock = product.UnitsInStock
            };
    }
}
from index "Products/ByUnitsInStock"
where UnitsInStock > 10
limit 0, 10 // First loop will skip 0, take 10  

// The next loops in the code will each generate the above RQL with an increased 'skip' value:
// limit 10, 10
// limit 20, 10
// limit 30, 10
// ...

Paging and performance

Better performance:

It is recommended to explicitly set a page size when making a query that is expected to generate a significant number of results. This practice has several benefits:

  • Optimizes bandwidth usage by reducing data transfer between the server and client.
  • Prevents delays in response times caused by sending too much data over the network.
  • Avoids high memory consumption when dealing with numerous documents.
  • Ensures a more manageable user experience by not overwhelming users with massive datasets at once.

Performance hints:

  • By default, if the number of returned results exceeds 2048, the server will issue a "Page size too big" notification (visible in the Studio) with information about the query.

  • This threshold can be customized by modifying the value of the PerformanceHints.MaxNumberOfResults configuration key.

  • As suggested by the hint, you may consider using Streaming query results instead of paging.

Figure 1. Performance Hint

Performance Hint

Paging through tampered results

  • The QueryStatistics object contains the TotalResults property,
    which represents the total number of matching documents found in the query results.

  • The QueryStatistics object also contains the SkippedResults property.
    Whenever this property is greater than 0, that implies the server has skipped that number of results from the index.

  • The server will skip duplicate results internally in the following two scenarios:

    1. When making a Projection query with Distinct.

    2. When querying a Fanout index.

  • In those cases:

    • The SkippedResults property from the stats object will hold the count of skipped (duplicate) results.

    • The TotalResults property will be invalidated -
      it will Not deduct the number of skipped results from the total number of results.

  • In order to do proper paging in those scenarios:
    include the SkippedResults value when specifying the number of documents to skip for each page using:
    (currentPage * pageSize) + SkippedResults.

Examples

A projection query with Distinct:

List<ProjectedClass> pagedResults;

int totalResults = 0;
int totalUniqueResults = 0;
int skippedResults = 0;

int pageNumber = 0;
int pageSize = 10;
                
do
{
    pagedResults = session
        .Query<Products_ByUnitsInStock.IndexEntry, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
        .Statistics(out QueryStatistics stats)
        .Where(x => x.UnitsInStock > 10)
        .OfType<Product>()
         // Define a projection
        .Select(x => new ProjectedClass
        {
            Category = x.Category,
            Supplier = x.Supplier
        })
         // Call Distinct to remove duplicate projected results
        .Distinct()
         // Add the number of skipped results to the "start location"  
        .Skip((pageNumber * pageSize) + skippedResults)
         // Define how many items to return
        .Take(pageSize)
        .ToList();
    
    totalResults = stats.TotalResults;        // Number of total matching documents (includes duplicates)
    skippedResults += stats.SkippedResults;   // Number of duplicate results that were skipped
    totalUniqueResults += pagedResults.Count; // Number of unique results returned in this server call
    
    pageNumber++;
}
while (pagedResults.Count > 0); // Fetch next results

// When executing the query on the Northwind sample data:
// ======================================================

// The total matching results reported in the stats is 47 (totalResults),
// but the total unique objects returned while paging the results is only 29 (totalUniqueResults)
// due to the 'Distinct' usage which removes duplicates.

// This is solved by adding the skipped results count to Skip().
List<ProjectedClass> pagedResults;

int totalResults = 0;
int totalUniqueResults = 0;
int skippedResults = 0;

int pageNumber = 0;
int pageSize = 10;
                
do
{
    pagedResults = await asyncSession
        .Query<Products_ByUnitsInStock.IndexEntry, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
        .Statistics(out QueryStatistics stats)
        .Where(x => x.UnitsInStock > 10)
        .OfType<Product>()
         // Define a projection
        .Select(x => new ProjectedClass
        {
            Category = x.Category,
            Supplier = x.Supplier
        })
         // Call Distinct to remove duplicate projected results
        .Distinct()
         // Add the number of skipped results to the "start location"  
        .Skip((pageNumber * pageSize) + skippedResults)
        .Take(pageSize)
        .ToListAsync();
    
    totalResults = stats.TotalResults;        // Number of total matching documents (includes duplicates)
    skippedResults += stats.SkippedResults;   // Number of duplicate results that were skipped
    totalUniqueResults += pagedResults.Count; // Number of unique results returned in this server call
    
    pageNumber++;
}
while (pagedResults.Count > 0); // Fetch next results

// When executing the query on the Northwind sample data:
// ======================================================

// The total matching results reported in the stats is 47 (totalResults),
// but the total unique objects returned while paging the results is only 29 (totalUniqueResults)
// due to the 'Distinct' usage which removes duplicates.

// This is solved by adding the skipped results count to Skip().
List<ProjectedClass> pagedResults;

int totalResults = 0;
int totalUniqueResults = 0;
int skippedResults = 0;

int pageNumber = 0;
int pageSize = 10;
                
do
{
    pagedResults = session.Advanced
        .DocumentQuery<Products_ByUnitsInStock.IndexEntry, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
        .Statistics(out QueryStatistics stats)
        .WhereGreaterThan(x => x.UnitsInStock, 10)
        .OfType<Product>()
         // Define a projection
        .SelectFields<ProjectedClass>()
         // Call Distinct to remove duplicate projected results
        .Distinct()
         // Add the number of skipped results to the "start location"  
        .Skip((pageNumber * pageSize) + skippedResults)
        .Take(pageSize)
        .ToList();
    
    totalResults = stats.TotalResults;        // Number of total matching documents (includes duplicates)
    skippedResults += stats.SkippedResults;   // Number of duplicate results that were skipped
    totalUniqueResults += pagedResults.Count; // Number of unique results returned in this server call
    
    pageNumber++;
}
while (pagedResults.Count > 0); // Fetch next results

// When executing the query on the Northwind sample data:
// ======================================================

// The total matching results reported in the stats is 47 (totalResults),
// but the total unique objects returned while paging the results is only 29 (totalUniqueResults)
// due to the 'Distinct' usage which removes duplicates.

// This is solved by adding the skipped results count to Skip().
public class Products_ByUnitsInStock : AbstractIndexCreationTask<Product>
{
    public class IndexEntry
    {
        public int UnitsInStock { get; set; }
    }
    
    public Products_ByUnitsInStock()
    {
        Map = products => from product in products
            select new
            {
                UnitsInStock = product.UnitsInStock
            };
    }
}
public class ProjectedClass
{
    public string Category { get; set; }
    public string Supplier { get; set; }
}
from index "Products/ByUnitsInStock"
where UnitsInStock > 10
select distinct Category, Supplier
limit 0, 10  // First loop will skip 0, take 10, etc.

Querying a Fanout index:

List<Order> pagedResults;

int totalResults = 0;
int totalUniqueResults = 0;
int skippedResults = 0;

int pageNumber = 0;
int pageSize = 50;
                
do
{
    pagedResults = session
        .Query<Orders_ByProductName.IndexEntry, Orders_ByProductName>()
        .Statistics(out QueryStatistics stats)
        .OfType<Order>()
         // Add the number of skipped results to the "start location"  
        .Skip((pageNumber * pageSize) + skippedResults)
        .Take(pageSize)
        .ToList();
    
    totalResults = stats.TotalResults;
    skippedResults += stats.SkippedResults;
    totalUniqueResults += pagedResults.Count;
    
    pageNumber++;
}
while (pagedResults.Count > 0); // Fetch next results

// When executing the query on the Northwind sample data:
// ======================================================

// The total results reported in the stats is 2155 (totalResults),
// which represent the multiple index-entries generated as defined by the fanout index.

// By adding the skipped results count to the Skip() method,
// we get the correct total unique results which is 830 Order documents.
List<Order> pagedResults;

int totalResults = 0;
int totalUniqueResults = 0;
int skippedResults = 0;

int pageNumber = 0;
int pageSize = 50;
                
do
{
    pagedResults = await asyncSession
        .Query<Orders_ByProductName.IndexEntry, Orders_ByProductName>()
        .Statistics(out QueryStatistics stats)
        .OfType<Order>()
         // Add the number of skipped results to the "start location"  
        .Skip((pageNumber * pageSize) + skippedResults)
        .Take(pageSize)
        .ToListAsync();
    
    totalResults = stats.TotalResults;
    skippedResults += stats.SkippedResults;
    totalUniqueResults += pagedResults.Count;
    
    pageNumber++;
}
while (pagedResults.Count > 0); // Fetch next results

// When executing the query on the Northwind sample data:
// ======================================================

// The total results reported in the stats is 2155 (totalResults),
// which represent the multiple index-entries generated as defined by the fanout index.

// By adding the skipped results count to the Skip() method,
// we get the correct total unique results which is 830 Order documents.
List<Order> pagedResults;

int totalResults = 0;
int totalUniqueResults = 0;
int skippedResults = 0;

int pageNumber = 0;
int pageSize = 50;
                
do
{
    pagedResults = session.Advanced
        .DocumentQuery<Orders_ByProductName.IndexEntry, Orders_ByProductName>()
        .Statistics(out QueryStatistics stats)
        .OfType<Order>()
         // Add the number of skipped results to the "start location"  
        .Skip((pageNumber * pageSize) + skippedResults)
        .Take(pageSize)
        .ToList();
    
    totalResults = stats.TotalResults;
    skippedResults += stats.SkippedResults;
    totalUniqueResults += pagedResults.Count;
    
    pageNumber++;
}
while (pagedResults.Count > 0); // Fetch next results

// When executing the query on the Northwind sample data:
// ======================================================

// The total results reported in the stats is 2155 (totalResults),
// which represent the multiple index-entries generated as defined by the fanout index.

// By adding the skipped results count to the Skip() method,
// we get the correct total unique results which is 830 Order documents.
// A fanout index - creating MULTIPLE index-entries per document:
// ==============================================================

public class Orders_ByProductName : AbstractIndexCreationTask<Order>
{
    public class IndexEntry
    {
        public string ProductName { get; set; }
    }
    
    public Orders_ByProductName()
    {
        Map = orders => 
            from order in orders
            from line in order.Lines
            select new IndexEntry
            {
                ProductName = line.ProductName
            };
    }
}
from index "Orders/ByProductName"
limit 0, 50  // First loop will skip 0, take 50, etc.