Paginating through a large response

Using the example from the previous section, one can continue to the next page by sending back the cursor field. In case of text format, the cursor is returned as Cursor http header.

POST /_sql?format=json
{
  "cursor": "sDXF1ZXJ5QW5kRmV0Y2gBAAAAAAAAAAEWYUpOYklQMHhRUEtld3RsNnFtYU1hQQ==:BAFmBGRhdGUBZgVsaWtlcwFzB21lc3NhZ2UBZgR1c2Vy9f///w8="
}

Which looks like:

{
  "rows" : [
    ["Dan Simmons",        "Hyperion",             482,  "1989-05-26T00:00:00.000Z"],
    ["Iain M. Banks",      "Consider Phlebas",     471,  "1987-04-23T00:00:00.000Z"],
    ["Neal Stephenson",    "Snow Crash",           470,  "1992-06-01T00:00:00.000Z"],
    ["Frank Herbert",      "God Emperor of Dune",  454,  "1981-05-28T00:00:00.000Z"],
    ["Frank Herbert",      "Children of Dune",     408,  "1976-04-21T00:00:00.000Z"]
  ],
  "cursor" : "sDXF1ZXJ5QW5kRmV0Y2gBAAAAAAAAAAEWODRMaXBUaVlRN21iTlRyWHZWYUdrdw==:BAFmBmF1dGhvcgFmBG5hbWUBZgpwYWdlX2NvdW50AWYMcmVsZWFzZV9kYXRl9f///w8="
}

Note that the columns object is only part of the first page.

You’ve reached the last page when there is no cursor returned in the results. Like Elasticsearch’s scroll, SQL may keep state in Elasticsearch to support the cursor. Unlike scroll, receiving the last page is enough to guarantee that the Elasticsearch state is cleared.

To clear the state earlier, you can use the clear cursor command:

POST /_sql/close
{
  "cursor": "sDXF1ZXJ5QW5kRmV0Y2gBAAAAAAAAAAEWYUpOYklQMHhRUEtld3RsNnFtYU1hQQ==:BAFmBGRhdGUBZgVsaWtlcwFzB21lc3NhZ2UBZgR1c2Vy9f///w8="
}

Which will like return the

{
  "succeeded" : true
}