CURSOR/FETCH vs LIMIT/OFFSET

Hi,

re: displaying results of query.

Trying to work out details of how to let users page back and forth
among a multi-page list of results.

Problem: I need to know the total number of tuples the query would
return in order to decide if there are more to display.

1) Use CURSOR and FETCH

$res= $con->exec(
"BEGIN WORK;
DECLARE gene_result CURSOR FOR
SELECT blah blah
ORDER BY blah;
FETCH $offset IN gene_result
");

$result->ntuple: returns only the number set by $offset, not TOTAL for query.

2) use LIMIT OFFSET

same problem,
$result->ntuple: returns only the number set by LIMIT, OFFSET, not
TOTAL for query.

So there has to be a way to glean both the TOTAL and the SUBSET returned?

Searching the postgresql archives obviously can deal with this
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-sql/
'Displaying documents 11-20 of total 243 found.'

--
Regards,

Chuck