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In the controller, we start by defining the pagination defaults in the $paginate controller variable. It is important to note here that the order key must be defined in the array structure given.

class RecipesController extends AppController {

    var $paginate = array(
        'limit' => 25,
        'order' => array(
            'Post.title' => 'asc'
        )
    );
}

1. class RecipesController extends AppController {
2. var $paginate = array(
3. 'limit' => 25,
4. 'order' => array(
5. 'Post.title' => 'asc'
6. )
7. );
8. }

You can also include other find() options, such as fields:

class RecipesController extends AppController {

    var $paginate = array(
        'fields' => array('Post.id', 'Post.created'),
        'limit' => 25,        
        'order' => array(
            'Post.title' => 'asc'
        )
    );
}

1. class RecipesController extends AppController {
2. var $paginate = array(
3. 'fields' => array('Post.id', 'Post.created'),
4. 'limit' => 25,
5. 'order' => array(
6. 'Post.title' => 'asc'
7. )
8. );
9. }

Other keys that can be included in the $paginate array are similar to the parameters of the Model->find('all') method, that is: conditions, fields, order, limit, page, contain, and recursive. In fact, you can define more than one set of pagination defaults in the controller, you just name the pieces of the array after the model you wish to configure:

class RecipesController extends AppController {

    var $paginate = array(
        'Recipe' => array (...),
        'Author' => array (...)
    );
}

1. class RecipesController extends AppController {
2. var $paginate = array(
3. 'Recipe' => array (...),
4. 'Author' => array (...)
5. );
6. }

Example of syntax using Containable Behavior:

class RecipesController extends AppController {

    var $paginate = array(
        'limit' => 25,
        'contain' => array('Article')
    );
}

1. class RecipesController extends AppController {
2. var $paginate = array(
3. 'limit' => 25,
4. 'contain' => array('Article')
5. );
6. }

Once the $paginate variable has been defined, we can call the paginate() method in controller actions. This method returns paged find() results from the model, and grabs some additional paging statistics, which are passed to the View behind the scenes. This method also adds PaginatorHelper to the list of helpers in your controller, if it has not been added already.

function list_recipes() {
    // similar to findAll(), but fetches paged results
    $data = $this->paginate('Recipe');
    $this->set('data', $data);
}

1. function list_recipes() {
2. // similar to findAll(), but fetches paged results
3. $data = $this->paginate('Recipe');
4. $this->set('data', $data);
5. }

You can filter the records by passing conditions as second parameter to the paginate() function.

$data = $this->paginate('Recipe', array('Recipe.title LIKE' => 'a%'));

1. $data = $this->paginate('Recipe', array('Recipe.title LIKE' => 'a%'));

Or you can also set conditions and other keys in the $paginate array inside your action.

function list_recipes() {
    $this->paginate = array(
        'conditions' => array('Recipe.title LIKE' => 'a%'),
        'limit' => 10
    );
    $data = $this->paginate('Recipe');
    $this->set(compact('data'));
);

1. function list_recipes() {
2. $this->paginate = array(
3. 'conditions' => array('Recipe.title LIKE' => 'a%'),
4. 'limit' => 10
5. );
6. $data = $this->paginate('Recipe');
7. $this->set(compact('data'));
8. );