Skip to content

AndroidX Paging

To use SQLDelight with Android's Paging 3 Library add a dependency on the paging extension artifact. Multiplatform support for AndroidX Paging is provided via Multiplatform Paging.

kotlin {
  sourceSets.commonMain.dependencies {
    implementation("app.cash.sqldelight:androidx-paging3-extensions:2.1.0-SNAPSHOT")
  }
}

kotlin {
  sourceSets.commonMain.dependencies {
    implementation "app.cash.sqldelight:androidx-paging3-extensions:2.1.0-SNAPSHOT"
  }
}

SQLDelight offers two methods for paging data — offset based paging and keyset paging.

Offset Based Paging

Offset paging achieves paged results using OFFSET and LIMIT clauses. Creating a PagingSource that performs offset based paging requires a count query as well as the paged query.

countPlayers:
SELECT count(*) FROM hockeyPlayer;

players:
SELECT *
FROM hockeyPlayer
LIMIT :limit OFFSET :offset;

import app.cash.sqldelight.android.paging3.QueryPagingSource

val pagingSource: PagingSource = QueryPagingSource(
  countQuery = playerQueries.countPlayers(),
  transacter = playerQueries,
  context = Dispatchers.IO,
  queryProvider = playerQueries::players,
)

By default, queries are performed on Dispatchers.IO if no context is specified. Consumers expecting to use RxJava's Scheduler to perform queries should use the Scheduler.asCoroutineDispatcher extension function.

Keyset Paging

Offset paging is simple and easy to maintain. Unfortunately it performs poorly on large datasets. The OFFSET clause of a SQL statement really just drops already executed rows in a SQL query. Therefore, as the number to OFFSET grows, so does the amount of time it takes to execute your query. To overcome this, SQLDelight offers a "keyset paging" implementation of PagingSource. Rather than querying an entire dataset and inefficiently dropping the first OFFSET elements, keyset paging operates using a unique column to restrict the bounds of your queries. This performs better at the expense of higher developer maintenance.

The queryProvider callback that this paging source accepts has two parameters — a beginInclusive non-null unique Key as well as an endExclusive nullable unique Key?. An example of the core paging query is shown below. 

keyedQuery:
SELECT * FROM hockeyPlayer
WHERE id >= :beginInclusive AND (id < :endExclusive OR :endExclusive IS NULL)
ORDER BY id ASC;

Queries used in keyset paging must have a unique ordering like shown above.

Both beginInclusive and endExclusive are pre-calculated keys that act as page boundaries. Page sizes are established when pre-calculating page boundaries. The pageBoundariesProvider callback takes an anchor: Key? parameter as well as a limit: Int? parameter. An example query that pre-calculates page boundaries is shown below. 

pageBoundaries:
SELECT id 
FROM (
  SELECT
    id,
    CASE
      WHEN ((row_number() OVER(ORDER BY id ASC) - 0) % :limit) = 0 THEN 1
      WHEN id = :anchor THEN 1
      ELSE 0
    END page_boundary;
  FROM hockeyPlayer
  ORDER BY id ASC
)
WHERE page_boundary = 1;

Pre-calculating page boundaries of a SQL query will likely require SQLite Window Functions. Window functions were introduced in SQLite version 3.25.0, and therefore are not available by default until Android API 30. To use keyset paging SQLDelight recommends either setting minApi 30 or bundling your own SQLite version. The Requery organization offers an up-to-date distribution of SQLite as a standalone library.

The AndroidX paging library allows for the first page fetch to differ in size from the subsequent page fetches with PagingConfig.initialLoadSize. This functionality should be avoided, as the pageBoundariesProvider callback is invoked a single time on the first page fetch. Failing to have matching PagingConifg.initialLoadSize and PagingConfig.pageSize will result in unexpected page boundary generation.

This paging source does not support jumping.

To create this paging source, use the QueryPagingSource factory function. 

import app.cash.sqldelight.android.paging3.QueryPagingSource

val keyedSource = QueryPagingSource(
  transacter = playerQueries,
  context = Dispatchers.IO,
  pageBoundariesProvider = playerQueries::pageBoundaries,
  queryProvider = playerQueries::keyedQuery,
)

By default, queries are performed on Dispatchers.IO if no context is specified. Consumers expecting to use RxJava's Scheduler to perform queries should use the Scheduler.asCoroutineDispatcher extension function.