Pagination, for loop

Question

I'm trying to make a pagination where I can limit how many numbers it will show in the navigation so it will be something like this

< 1 ... [3] 4 5 ... 9 >

The script I have now is working fine until I'm at the last couple of pages. Lets say I set max numbers allowed in the navigation to 4 and number of pages to 9. Then it will work to page 7, but from page 7 it will start shrink in numbers and not put them in front of the current page number. It will behave like this

< 1 ... [7] 8 9

< 1 ... [8] 9

When I'm at the last page the navigation will only show

< 1 ... 9

What i would like it to look like is like this

< 1 ... 6 [7] 8 9 >

< 1 ... 6 7 [8] 9 >

< 1 ... 6 7 8 [9]

I have tried to make this work for some hours now but, are kind of stuck. Any suggestions?

 // Method to output the pagination
 function output_pagination($max_per_page, $table) {

    $page_number = $this->valid_page_number($this->get_page_number(), $table); // Get current page number
    $num_pages = $this->count_table_rows($table) / $max_per_page; // Set the number of pages
    $max_nav_pages = 4; // Max numbers of pages in the page navigation
    $start = $page_number-1; // Value to start the loop on

    // Set start to 1 if it equals 0
    if($start === 0) {
        $start = 1;
    }

    // Keep loop going until $i no longer is greater or equal to number of pages
    for($i = $start; $i <= $num_pages; $i++) {

        // Output prev arrow + '...' + 1 if its the start of the pagination and page number not equals 1 ($i = 1 and page number is > $i)
        if(($i === $start) && ($page_number > 1)) {

            // Check if number of pages are greater then max allowed in navigation and if page number not equals 2
            if(($num_pages > $max_nav_pages) && ($page_number !== 2)) {

                echo "<< ";
                echo "< ";
                echo "1 ";
                echo " ... ";
                $i = $page_number - 1;

            } else {

                echo "<< ";
                echo "< ";
                echo $i;

            }

        }

        // Output current page in bold text if $i equals or are greater then $start and page number equals $i
        else if (($i >= $start) && ($page_number === $i)) {

            echo " <b>[".$i."]</b> ";

        }

        // Output "...", last page number and next page arrow. if we have 10 pages or more. Then break the loop. We are done.
        else if($i === $start + $max_nav_pages) {

            // Check if page number equals number of pages - max allowed nav pages + 1
            if($page_number === $num_pages-$max_nav_pages+1) {

                echo $i;
                echo " >";
                echo " >>";
                break;

            } else {
                echo " ... ";
                echo $num_pages;
                echo " >";
                echo " >>";
                break;
            }

        }

        // Output next page number if $i is greater then $start and $i + 1 is equal or greater then number of total pages
        else if(($i > $start) && ($i + 1 <= $num_pages)) {

            echo " ".$i." ";

        }

        else { // Output last page number and next page arrow. We are done.

            echo $i;
            echo " >";
            echo " >>";

        }
    }

}

Answer 1

Let's say you are in page 8, then the loop always starts from $page_number - 1 which will be 7, which means 6 will never be displayed. You need to start your loop from $page_number - $max_nav_pages and determine which numbers should be displayed that way.