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Ordering & Pagination

The Entity Service API offers the ability to order and paginate results found with its findMany() method.

Ordering​

To order results returned by the Entity Service API, use the sort parameter. Results can be ordered based on a single or on multiple attribute(s) and can also use relational ordering.

Single​

To order results by a single field, pass it to the sort parameter either:

  • as a string to sort with the default ascending order, or
  • as an object to define both the field name and the order (i.e. 'asc' for ascending order or 'desc' for descending order)
strapi.entityService.findMany('api::article.article', {
  sort: 'id',
});

// single with direction
strapi.entityService.findMany('api::article.article', {
  sort: { id: 'desc' },
});

Multiple​

To order results by multiple fields, pass the fields as an array to the sort parameter either:

  • as an array of strings to sort multiple fields using the default ascending order, or
  • as an array of objects to define both the field name and the order (i.e. 'asc' for ascending order or 'desc' for descending order)
strapi.entityService.findMany('api::article.article', {
  sort: ['publishDate', 'name'],
});

// multiple with direction
strapi.entityService.findMany('api::article.article', {
  sort: [{ title: 'asc' }, { publishedAt: 'desc' }],
});

Relational ordering​

Fields can also be sorted based on fields from relations:

strapi.entityService.findMany('api::article.article', {
  sort: {
    author: {
      name: 'asc',
    },
  },
});

Pagination​

Results can be paginated using 2 different strategies (see REST API documentation for more details):

  • pagination by page, when defining the page and pageSize parameters,
  • and pagination by offset, when defining the start and limit parameters.

2 different functions can be used to paginate results with the Entity Service API and accept different pagination strategies:

Function namePossible pagination method(s)
findMany()Offset pagination only
findPage()
  • Offset pagination
  • Page pagination

findMany() should only be used with offset pagination:

strapi.entityService.findMany('api::article.article', {
  start: 10,
  limit: 15,
});

findPage() accepts both offset and page pagination, provided you use only one pagination strategy per query:

strapi.entityService.findPage('api::article.article', {
  start: 10,
  limit: 15,
});
strapi.entityService.findPage('api::article.article', {
  page: 1,
  pageSize: 15,
});