paginating query results

Hi,

I am pulling items from a database table (not wp) and want to display them in a paginated way. The method I used on my old php pages worked well but I’m moving the site to wordpress.

I’ve created a page template containing the code and have based a page on that template. The page correctly displays the first page of items and the pagination links (previous 1 2 3 next) and they are clickable, but the links don’t work (404 error).

I’m not quite sure how to correctly paginate the results so that they work. I’ve had a look at paginate_links() but don’t fully understand how to use it. I can just about find my way around php but am no expert.

Grateful for any help.

Here’s the code used to produce the pagination on the old site:

// Make the links to other pages, if necessary.
if ($pages > 1) {

	// Add some spacing and start a paragraph:
	echo '<br /><p>';

	// Determine what page the script is on:
	$current_page = ($start/$display) + 1;

	// If it's not the first page, make a Previous button:
	if ($current_page != 1) {
		echo '<a href="items.php?s=' . ($start - $display) . '&p=' . $pages . '">Previous</a> ';
	}

	// Make all the numbered pages:
	for ($i = 1; $i <= $pages; $i++) {
		if ($i != $current_page) {
			echo '<a href="items.php?s=' . (($display * ($i - 1))) . '&p=' . $pages . '">' . $i . '</a> ';
		} else {
			echo $i . ' ';
		}
	} // End of FOR loop.

	// If it's not the last page, make a Next button:
	if ($current_page != $pages) {
		echo '<a href="items.php?s=' . ($start + $display) . '&p=' . $pages . '">Next</a>';
	}

	echo '</p>'; // Close the paragraph.

} // End of links section.