yii2/docs/guide/data-providers.md

Data providers
==============

Data provider abstracts data set via [[yii\data\DataProviderInterface]] and handles pagination and sorting.
It can be used by [grids](data-grid.md), [lists and other data widgets](data-widgets.md).

In Yii there are three built-in data providers: [[yii\data\ActiveDataProvider]], [[yii\data\ArrayDataProvider]] and
[[yii\data\SqlDataProvider]].

Active data provider
--------------------

`ActiveDataProvider` provides data by performing DB queries using [[\yii\db\Query]] and [[\yii\db\ActiveQuery]].

The following is an example of using it to provide ActiveRecord instances:

```php
$provider = new ActiveDataProvider([
	'query' => Post::find(),
	'pagination' => [
		'pageSize' => 20,
	],
]);

// get the posts in the current page
$posts = $provider->getModels();
~~~

And the following example shows how to use ActiveDataProvider without ActiveRecord:

```php
$query = new Query();
$provider = new ActiveDataProvider([
	'query' => $query->from('tbl_post'),
	'pagination' => [
		'pageSize' => 20,
	],
]);

// get the posts in the current page
$posts = $provider->getModels();
```

Array data provider
-------------------

ArrayDataProvider implements a data provider based on a data array.

The [[allModels]] property contains all data models that may be sorted and/or paginated.
ArrayDataProvider will provide the data after sorting and/or pagination.
You may configure the [[sort]] and [[pagination]] properties to
customize the sorting and pagination behaviors.

Elements in the [[allModels]] array may be either objects (e.g. model objects)
or associative arrays (e.g. query results of DAO).
Make sure to set the [[key]] property to the name of the field that uniquely
identifies a data record or false if you do not have such a field.

Compared to `ActiveDataProvider`, `ArrayDataProvider` could be less efficient
because it needs to have [[allModels]] ready.

ArrayDataProvider may be used in the following way:

```php
$query = new Query();
$provider = new ArrayDataProvider([
    'allModels' => $query->from('tbl_post')->all(),
    'sort' => [
        'attributes' => ['id', 'username', 'email'],
    ],
    'pagination' => [
        'pageSize' => 10,
    ],
]);
// get the posts in the current page
$posts = $provider->getModels();
```

> Note: if you want to use the sorting feature, you must configure the [[sort]] property
so that the provider knows which columns can be sorted.

SQL data provider
-----------------

SqlDataProvider implements a data provider based on a plain SQL statement. It provides data in terms of arrays, each
representing a row of query result.

Like other data providers, SqlDataProvider also supports sorting and pagination. It does so by modifying the given
[[sql]] statement with "ORDER BY" and "LIMIT" clauses. You may configure the [[sort]] and [[pagination]] properties to
customize sorting and pagination behaviors.

`SqlDataProvider` may be used in the following way:

```php
$count = Yii::$app->db->createCommand('
    SELECT COUNT(*) FROM tbl_user WHERE status=:status
', [':status' => 1])->queryScalar();

$dataProvider = new SqlDataProvider([
    'sql' => 'SELECTFROM tbl_user WHERE status=:status',
    'params' => [':status' => 1],
    'totalCount' => $count,
    'sort' => [
        'attributes' => [
            'age',
            'name' => [
                'asc' => ['first_name' => SORT_ASC, 'last_name' => SORT_ASC],
                'desc' => ['first_name' => SORT_DESC, 'last_name' => SORT_DESC],
                'default' => SORT_DESC,
                'label' => 'Name',
            ],
        ],
    ],
    'pagination' => [
        'pageSize' => 20,
    ],
]);

// get the user records in the current page
$models = $dataProvider->getModels();
```

> Note: if you want to use the pagination feature, you must configure the [[totalCount]] property
to be the total number of rows (without pagination). And if you want to use the sorting feature,
you must configure the [[sort]] property so that the provider knows which columns can be sorted.


Implementing your own custom data provider
------------------------------------------