Tablestore:Sorting and paging

Scenarios

Index presorting

By default, data in a search index is sorted based on the presorting settings that are specified by the IndexSort parameter. When you use a search index to query data, the presorting settings that are specified by the IndexSort parameter determine the default order in which the matched data is returned.

When you create a search index, you can specify presorting settings by configuring the IndexSort parameter. If you do not specify presorting settings, data in the search index is sorted by primary key.

Specify a sorting method when you query data

Sorting can be enabled only for fields for which the enableSortAndAgg parameter is set to true.

You can specify a sorting method for each query. Search index-based queries support the following sorting methods. You can also specify multiple sorting methods based on different priorities.

ScoreSort

SearchQuery searchQuery = new SearchQuery();
searchQuery.setSort(new Sort(Arrays.asList(new ScoreSort())));

PrimaryKeySort

You can use PrimaryKeySort to sort query results based on the value of the primary key.

SearchQuery searchQuery = new SearchQuery();
searchQuery.setSort(new Sort(Arrays.asList(new PrimaryKeySort()))); // Sort the query results in the ascending order. 
//searchQuery.setSort(new Sort(Arrays.asList(new PrimaryKeySort(SortOrder.DESC)))); // Sort the query results in the descending order. 

FieldSort

You can use FieldSort to sort query results based on the values of a specific column.

SearchQuery searchQuery = new SearchQuery();
searchQuery.setSort(new Sort(Arrays.asList(new FieldSort("col", SortOrder.ASC))));

You can also sort query result based on the values of two columns in specific orders to determine the order in which the matched data is returned.

SearchQuery searchQuery = new SearchQuery();
searchQuery.setSort(new Sort(Arrays.asList(
    new FieldSort("col1", SortOrder.ASC), new FieldSort("col2", SortOrder.ASC))));

You can specify the mode parameter for multi-value fields, such as Array fields or Nested fields to determine the elements that are used to sort the query results.

You can specify the mode parameter for Array fields to determine the elements that are used to sort the query results.

// Two rows doc1 and doc2 contain the field1 column of the Array type. The value of the field1 column in the doc1 row is [2,3] and the value of the field1 column in the doc2 row is [1,3,4]. 
// You can specify the mode parameter to determine the elements of the Array field in the two rows that are used to sort the two rows. 
{
    // When you set the mode parameter to SortMode.MAX, the maximum elements of the Array field are used to sort the rows. In this example, 3 in the doc1 row and 4 in the doc2 row are used to sort the two rows and the sorting result is doc2 and doc1. 
    FieldSort fieldSort = new FieldSort("field1", SortOrder.DESC);
    fieldSort.setMode(SortMode.MAX);
}
{
    // When you set the mode parameter to SortMode.MIN, the minimum elements of the Array field are used to sort the rows. In this example, 2 in the doc1 row and 1 in the doc2 row are used to sort the two rows and the sorting result is doc1 and doc2. 
    FieldSort fieldSort = new FieldSort("field1", SortOrder.DESC);
    fieldSort.setMode(SortMode.MIN);
}

You can also specify the mode parameter for Nested fields to determine the elements that are used to sort the child rows.

// Two rows doc1 and doc2 contain the field1 column of the Nested type. 
// The value of the field1 column in the doc1 row is [{"name":"b", "age":1},{"name":"a", "age":7}]. 
// The value of the field1 column in the doc2 row is [{"name":"a", "age":1},{"name":"c", "age":1},{"name":"d", "age":5}].

{
    // You can specify the mode parameter to determine the elements of the Nested field in the two rows that are used to sort the child rows. 
    // When you set the mode parameter to SortMode.MAX, the maximum elements of the Nested field are used to sort the rows. In this example, 7 in the doc1 row and 5 in the doc2 row are used to sort the two rows by the age column and the sorting result is doc1 and doc2. 
    FieldSort fieldSort = new FieldSort("field1.age", SortOrder.DESC);
    fieldSort.setMode(SortMode.MAX);
    String path = "field1";
    NestedFilter nestedFilter = new NestedFilter(path, QueryBuilders.matchAll().build());
    fieldSort.setNestedFilter(nestedFilter);
}
{
    // You can specify the mode parameter to determine the elements of the Nested field in the two rows that are used to sort the child rows in which the value of the age column is 1. 
    {
        // When you set the mode parameter to SortMode.MAX, the maximum elements of the Nested field are used to sort the rows. In this example, "b" in the doc1 row and "a" in the doc2 row are used to sort the two rows by the name column and the sorting result is doc2 and doc1.
        FieldSort fieldSort = new FieldSort("field1.name", SortOrder.DESC);
        fieldSort.setMode(SortMode.MAX);
        String path = "field1";
        NestedFilter nestedFilter = new NestedFilter(path, QueryBuilders.term("students.age",1).build());
        fieldSort.setNestedFilter(nestedFilter);
    }
    {
        // When you set the mode parameter to SortMode.MIN, the minimum elements of the Nested field are used to sort the rows. In this example, "b" in the doc1 row and "c" in the doc2 row are used to sort the two rows by the name column and the sorting result is doc1 and doc2. 
        FieldSort fieldSort = new FieldSort("field1.name", SortOrder.DESC);
        fieldSort.setMode(SortMode.MIN);
        String path = "field1";
        NestedFilter nestedFilter = new NestedFilter(path, QueryBuilders.term("students.age",1).build());
        fieldSort.setNestedFilter(nestedFilter);
    }
}

GeoDistanceSort

You can use GeoDistanceSort to sort query results by geographical location.

SearchQuery searchQuery = new SearchQuery();
// Sort the results based on the distance from the value in the GEOPOINT geo column to the coordinate pair (0, 0). 
Sort.Sorter sorter = new GeoDistanceSort("geo", Arrays.asList("0, 0"));
searchQuery.setSort(new Sort(Arrays.asList(sorter)));

Specify a paging method

You can configure the limit and offset parameters or use tokens to page the rows in the response.

Configure the limit and offset parameters

If you do not specify values for the limit and offset parameters, the default values are used. The default value of the limit parameter is 10. The default value of the offset parameter is 0.

SearchQuery searchQuery = new SearchQuery();
searchQuery.setQuery(new MatchAllQuery());
searchQuery.setLimit(100);
searchQuery.setOffset(100);

Use a token

We recommend that you use a token for deep paging because this method has no limits on the paging depth.

If Tablestore cannot read all data that meets the query conditions, Tablestore returns nextToken. You can use nextToken to continue reading the subsequent data.

By default, you can only page backward when you use a token. However, you can cache and use a previous token to page forward because tokens are valid during the query.

When you use a token, the sorting method is the same as the method that is used in the previous request. Tablestore sorts data based on the IndexSort field by default or based on the method that you specified. You cannot specify the sorting method when you use a token. You cannot configure the offset parameter when you use a token. Data is returned page by page, which results in a slow query.

private static void readMoreRowsWithToken(SyncClient client) {
    SearchQuery searchQuery = new SearchQuery();
    searchQuery.setQuery(new MatchAllQuery());
    searchQuery.setGetTotalCount(true);// Specify that the total number of rows that meet the query conditions is returned. 

    SearchRequest searchRequest = new SearchRequest("sampleTable", "sampleSearchIndex", searchQuery);

    SearchResponse resp = client.search(searchRequest);
    if (!resp.isAllSuccess()) {
        throw new RuntimeException("not all success");
    }
    List<Row> rows = resp.getRows();
    while (resp.getNextToken()!=null) { // If nextToken is null in the response, all data is read. 
        // Query the nextToken value. 
        byte[] nextToken = resp.getNextToken();

        {
            // If you want to persist nextToken or transfer nextToken to the frontend page, you can use Base64 to encode nextToken into a string. 
            // Tokens are not strings. If you use new String(nextToken) to encode a token into a string, information about the token is lost. 
            String tokenAsString = Base64.toBase64String(nextToken);
            // Decode the string into bytes. 
            byte[] tokenAsByte = Base64.fromBase64String(tokenAsString);
        }

        // Set the token in this request to the value of nextToken in the previous response. 
        searchRequest.getSearchQuery().setToken(nextToken);
        resp = client.search(searchRequest);
        if (!resp.isAllSuccess()) {
            throw new RuntimeException("not all success");
        }
        rows.addAll(resp.getRows());
    }
    System.out.println("RowSize: " + rows.size());
    System.out.println("TotalCount: " + resp.getTotalCount());// Specify that the total number of rows that meet the query conditions is displayed rather than the number of rows that are returned. 
}