WordPress Numeric Pagination

I’ve made quite a few WordPress themes in my time, and so I thought I would write a few blog posts sharing some of the code snippets that I find myself using repeatedly.

First off is some numeric pagination using native WordPress functionality. I have always prefered numbered pagination over next and previous links as it gives a good indication of progression and location – and allows you to skip around much more quickly – but WordPress doesn’t have a single line command for it.

For a long time I used my own custom function – but now I use the function below.

The function that does all the clever stuff is the paginate_links command. For WordPress it’s mostly used in the admin, but it’s easy to reuse as shown below.

/**
 * numeric pagination for custom queries
 * Much nicer than next and previous links :)
 *
 * @global type $wp_query
 * @param type $pageCount
 * @param type $query
 * @return type
 */
function bm_numeric_pagination( $page_count = 9, $query = null ) {

	if ( null == $query ) {
		global $wp_query;
		$query = $wp_query;
	}

	if ( 1 >= $query->max_num_pages ) {
		return;
	}

	$big = 9999999999; // need an unlikely integer

	echo '<div id="archive-pagination pagination">';
	echo paginate_links( array(
		'base' => str_replace( $big, '%#%', esc_url( get_pagenum_link( $big ) ) ),
		'format' => '?paged=%#%',
		'current' => max( 1, get_query_var( 'paged' ) ),
		'total' => $query->max_num_pages,
		'end_size' => 0,
		'mid_size' => $page_count,
		'next_text' => __( 'Older ›', 'textdomain' ),
		'prev_text' => __( '‹ Newer', 'textdomain' )
	) );
	echo '</div>';

}

Ben

Ben is a lifelong Nintendo fan who likes to build websites, and make video games. He buys way too much Lego.