building a "next page, prev page" link

[kiken]

Hi,

I'm trying to add links using php to access my database so users would be able to scroll through the information.

I would like to have links for "next" "previous" and page "1" "2" "3" etc.

I have something like:

if ($action=="view_next") { view_next(); }

function view_next () {

global $view_start, $view_stop, $view_num, $entries;

$view_start = $view_start + $view_num;
$view_stop = $view_start + $view_num - 1;
if ($view_stop > $entries) {
$view_stop = $entries - 1;
}

}

Then a sql query to find entries from $view_start to $view_stop.
This will work once, but then the variables will not change after that. Should I use static variables? If so, where are they supposed to be declared? Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks in advance for any help or direction to other posts/articles similar to this.

[autumn]

Here's a little script I use:

$sql2 = "select * from table";

$sql_result2 = mysql_query($sql2);
$num =  mysql_num_rows($sql_result2);


$per_page = 50;	


if ($offset == ""){$offset = 0;}

// Count pages
$pages = $num/$per_page;
$pages = ceil($pages);

$sql1 = "select * from table limit $offset,$per_page";




// list/loop db records here






// nav here
$forward = $offset + $per_page;
$rewind = $offset - $per_page;

if ($offset == 0){

$p_f = 1;
$p_r = 1;

}

echo "$num records found. This is page $p_f/$pages ";

$p_f = $p_f + 1;
$p_r = $p_f - 2;


if ($offset > 0){
	echo " <a href=\"thispage.php?offset=$rewind&p_f=$p_r\"><< Back</a> ";
	}

if ($forward < $num){
	echo " <a href=\"thispage.php?offset=$forward&p_f=$p_f\">Next >></a><BR>";
	}

A