Pagination, Sorting, and Slice Streaming
Return paged, sorted, and streamed result sets efficiently for large datasets and infinite scroll UIs.
Why Pagination Matters
Loading an entire table into memory is one of the fastest ways to crash a service. A findAll() on a million-row table builds a giant list, exhausts the heap, and blocks the request thread.
Pagination solves this by fetching results in small chunks (pages). Spring Data JPA gives you first-class support through the Pageable abstraction.
- Page — knows the total element count and total page count.
- Slice — only knows whether a next chunk exists (cheaper).
- Stream — processes rows one-by-one without materializing a list.
In this lesson you will learn when to reach for each one.
The Pageable Parameter
Add a Pageable parameter to any repository method and Spring Data appends LIMIT and OFFSET (or the dialect equivalent) to the generated query automatically.
The method returns a Page<T>, which wraps the content list plus paging metadata.
public interface ProductRepository extends JpaRepository<Product, Long> {
Page<Product> findByCategory(String category, Pageable pageable);
}All lessons in this course
- Derived Query Methods and Keyword Resolution
- JPQL and Native Queries with @Query
- Specifications and Criteria-Based Dynamic Filtering
- Pagination, Sorting, and Slice Streaming