What is the Pagination library in CodeIgniter 4?
Why Interviewers Ask This
Foundational questions like this help interviewers calibrate the rest of the interview. A confident, accurate answer signals that you have solid CodeIgniter basics — a prerequisite for any developer role.
Answer
CodeIgniter 4 includes a built-in Pager class for pagination. In a model, use paginate() directly: $users = $this->userModel->paginate(15) — this returns the current page's data. Get the pager: $pager = $this->userModel->pager. In the view: <?= $pager->links() ?> renders navigation links. The current page is automatically read from the page query parameter in the URL. Customize templates in app/Views/Pager/. For non-model pagination (manual queries): $pager = service("pager"); $pager->makeLinks($currentPage, $perPage, $total). CI4's Pager generates clean Bootstrap-compatible pagination HTML and supports multiple pager groups per page for paginating multiple datasets simultaneously.
Pro Tip
This topic has CodeIgniter-specific nuances that differ from general programming. Highlighting those nuances in your answer shows expertise rather than generic knowledge.
Previous
What is the Database class in CodeIgniter 4?
Next
What is the Email library in CodeIgniter 4?