What does pagination refer to in database management?

Pagination in database management refers to the method of separating content into discrete pages. This concept is particularly important when handling large datasets, as it allows applications to display a manageable subset of records at any given time. By breaking the data into pages, users can navigate through it more easily without being overwhelmed by an excess of information.

When implementing pagination, queries are often designed to return a specific number of records per page, paired with mechanisms to navigate between these pages. This is especially useful in user interfaces, where displaying thousands of records at once would not only be impractical but also detrimental to performance.

Other options do not accurately capture the concept of pagination. Creating multiple versions of a document pertains more to version control or concurrency handling rather than layout. Enforcing data integrity across collections relates to maintaining rules and constraints to ensure data validity, not how data is presented. Grouping documents into one large document could refer to certain types of data modeling approaches but does not align with the idea of discrete pagination.