Pagination and sorting with Pageable and Sort.

Add a Pageable parameter to a repository method and Spring Data handles the LIMIT/OFFSET, the ORDER BY, and a second COUNT query — returning a Page that carries the data plus pagination metadata. You never write the slicing logic yourself.

The basics

Page<User> findByStatus(Status status, Pageable pageable);

var pageable = PageRequest.of(0, 20, Sort.by("createdAt").descending());
Page<User> page = repo.findByStatus(ACTIVE, pageable);

page.getContent();        // List<User> for this page
page.getTotalElements();  // total rows across all pages
page.getTotalPages();
page.hasNext();

PageRequest.of(page, size, sort) builds a Pageable — page is zero-based. Spring turns it into LIMIT 20 OFFSET 0 ORDER BY created_at DESC and runs an extra SELECT count(*) so getTotalElements() works.

Page vs Slice vs List

The return type controls the cost:

Page<T>   → data + total count (runs the extra COUNT query)
Slice<T>  → data + "is there a next page?" (NO count query — fetches size+1 rows)
List<T>   → just the rows, no metadata

Use Slice for infinite-scroll UIs where you only need "more?" — it skips the expensive COUNT. Use Page when you must show "page 3 of 47."

Sort on its own

If you only need ordering, take a Sort:

List<User> findByStatus(Status status, Sort sort);
repo.findByStatus(ACTIVE, Sort.by(Sort.Order.asc("name"), Sort.Order.desc("createdAt")));

Spring MVC integration

A controller method can accept Pageable directly; PageableHandlerMethodArgumentResolver binds ?page=2&size=20&sort=createdAt,desc from the request automatically.