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Step 7: Ordering and limiting query results

To sort the results of a query, use the sort parameter in the query string with a value of the name of the entity property to sort by.

Ascending (normal) sort​

To sort all of the posts by publishedAt:

curl "localhost:8080/dev/posts?sort=publishedAt"
{
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "[GENERATED-ID]",
      "author": "Dejan",
      "content": "...",
      "publishedAt": 777,
      "hidden": true
    },
    {
      "id": "[GENERATED-ID]",
      "author": "Pekka",
      "content": "...",
      "publishedAt": 888,
      "hidden": false
    },
    {
      "id": "[GENERATED-ID]",
      "author": "Glauber",
      "content": "...",
      "publishedAt": 999,
      "hidden": false
    }
  ]
}

Descending (reverse) sort​

To reverse the sort order, prefix the name of the property with a hyphen character (-):

curl "localhost:8080/dev/posts?sort=-publishedAt"
{
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "[GENERATED-ID]",
      "author": "Glauber",
      "content": "...",
      "publishedAt": 999,
      "hidden": false
    },
    {
      "id": "[GENERATED-ID]",
      "author": "Pekka",
      "content": "...",
      "publishedAt": 888,
      "hidden": false
    },
    {
      "id": "[GENERATED-ID]",
      "author": "Dejan",
      "content": "...",
      "publishedAt": 777,
      "hidden": true
    }
  ]
}

Combine filtering and sorting​

You can combine filtering with ordering in the same query in exactly the way you would expect.

To query for all posts that are not hidden, ordered by publishedAt:

curl "localhost:8080/dev/posts?.hidden=false&sort=publishedAt"
{
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "[GENERATED-ID]",
      "author": "Pekka",
      "content": "...",
      "publishedAt": 888,
      "hidden": false
    },
    {
      "id": "[GENERATED-ID]",
      "author": "Glauber",
      "content": "...",
      "publishedAt": 999,
      "hidden": false
    }
  ]
}

Limiting query results​

To limit the number of query results to only the number required, you can add the query string parameter limit to indicate that number.

To get only the newest post, as determined by the publishedAt property, you can reverse order by that property, then request only the first one:

curl "localhost:8080/dev/posts?sort=-publishedAt&limit=1"
{
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "[GENERATED-ID]",
      "author": "Glauber",
      "content": "...",
      "publishedAt": 999,
      "hidden": false
    }
  ]
}

Skipping query results (offset)​

To skip a number of results, you can add the query string parameter offset to indicate that number.

To get only the second newest post, as determined by the publishedAt property, you can reverse order by that property, skip one result, and request only the first one after that:

curl "localhost:8080/dev/posts?sort=-publishedAt&limit=1&offset=1"
{
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "[GENERATED-ID]",
      "author": "Pekka",
      "content": "...",
      "publishedAt": 888,
      "hidden": false
    }
  ]
}