Pagination

Pagination in JavaFX is a control that lets you split content across multiple pages, with built-in navigation (like “Next” and “Previous” buttons). It’s useful when you have a large list, table, or images that should be shown page by page instead of all at once.

Here’s a full example to understand it.

Example: Display a List of Numbers in Pages

We’ll show 10 numbers per page using Pagination.

Controller (HelloController.java)

package org.example.demo;

import javafx.fxml.FXML;
import javafx.scene.control.Label;
import javafx.scene.control.Pagination;
import javafx.scene.layout.VBox;

public class HelloController {

    @FXML
    private Pagination pagination;

    private final int itemsPerPage = 10;
    private final int totalItems = 95; // Example: 95 items
    private final int totalPages = (int) Math.ceil((double) totalItems / itemsPerPage);

    @FXML
    public void initialize() {
        pagination.setPageCount(totalPages);
        pagination.setPageFactory(this::createPage);
    }

    private VBox createPage(int pageIndex) {
        VBox box = new VBox(5);
        int start = pageIndex * itemsPerPage;
        int end = Math.min(start + itemsPerPage, totalItems);

        for (int i = start + 1; i <= end; i++) {
            box.getChildren().add(new Label("Item " + i));
        }

        return box;
    }
}

FXML (hello-view.fxml)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<?import javafx.scene.control.Pagination?>
<?import javafx.scene.layout.VBox?>

<VBox spacing="20" alignment="CENTER"
      xmlns="http://javafx.com/javafx/17"
      xmlns:fx="http://javafx.com/fxml/1"
      fx:controller="org.example.demo.HelloController">

    <Pagination fx:id="pagination"/>
</VBox>

How It Works

1. pagination.setPageCount(totalPages) → sets how many pages exist.
2. pagination.setPageFactory(this::createPage) → tells JavaFX how to create each page.
3. createPage(int pageIndex) → builds a VBox with the items for that page.

JavaFX automatically adds the page navigation buttons at the bottom:

< Previous   1  2  3  ...  Next >

Dynamic Use Cases

• Image galleries
• Search results
• Large tables/lists
• Forms split into multiple steps