Limit and Offset Query

Implement pagination logic to extract a slice from a list with limit and offset.

pagination list slicing

Imagine you're building a database query helper. Write a function `limit_offset_query(data, limit, offset) -> list` that returns a list of items starting at `offset` and taking at most `limit` items. If `offset` is beyond the length of `data`, return an empty list. If `limit` is negative, treat it as 0. The original `data` list must not be modified.

Constraints

0 <= offset <= 10^6, -10^3 <= limit <= 10^3, len(data) <= 10^4. Time complexity: O(min(limit, n)). Space complexity: O(min(limit, n)).

Example

>>> limit_offset_query([1,2,3,4,5], 2, 1)
[2, 3]
>>> limit_offset_query([1,2,3], 5, 0)
[1, 2, 3]
>>> limit_offset_query([1,2,3], 2, 2)
[3]
>>> limit_offset_query([1,2,3], 2, 5)
[]

8 points ~10 min

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Hints

Use Python's list slicing with the given offset and offset+limit.

Remember to clamp limit to non-negative.

If offset is larger than the list length, slicing naturally returns an empty list.

Avoid modifying the original by returning a new list.

Test Results

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