OFFSET — Complete Guide
OFFSET — Complete Guide: free step-by-step lesson with examples, common mistakes, and interview tips — part of MySQL Tutorial on Toolliyo Academy.
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MySQL Tutorial · Lesson 18 of 100
OFFSET
Basics → Advanced
Basics · 1 — SQL · ~6 min · MySQL — Queries & Clauses
What is this?
OFFSET skips the first N rows after sorting, then LIMIT takes the next batch. Classic pattern: page 3 with page size 10 → LIMIT 10 OFFSET 20.
Why should you care?
Instagram-style feeds and admin tables page through millions of posts — OFFSET + LIMIT is the simple math behind “next page”.
See it live — copy this example
Run in MySQL Workbench or the mysql CLI.
SELECT order_id, order_ref, total_inr
FROM orders
ORDER BY order_id
LIMIT 10 OFFSET 20;What happened?
- Rows 1–20 are skipped; rows 21–30 return.
- order_id ordering makes pages stable.
- Deep OFFSET gets slow on huge tables — keyset pagination is the production upgrade.
Practice next
- Insert 35 orders with sequential ids.
- Fetch page 1: LIMIT 10 OFFSET 0.
- Fetch page 3: OFFSET 20; verify ids 21–30.
- Compute offset in app: page=4, size=10 → OFFSET 30.
- Replace with WHERE order_id > 20 ORDER BY order_id LIMIT 10 for keyset style.
Remember
OFFSET skips leading rows. LIMIT 10 OFFSET 20 = third page of 10. Deep offsets cost — consider WHERE id > last_seen later.
DataFlow admin orders table
Support UI pages through order history 50 at a time using OFFSET from query param ?page=5.
Outcome: Agents review tickets without loading entire history.
Interview prep for this lesson
Practice these questions aloud after reading—each links to a full structured answer.
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