Displaying paging links

[Wintergreen]

I've got a paging system that works fine, but I'm trying to find as simple a way as possible to display the links.  I've looked through some tutorials but they all had all the links printed out, which isn't what I want. 

I'd like the links to show up like they do in this forum.  On a smaller scale, though.  So if you're on page one, it shows a few links for pages after then, then ... $last_page    If you're on page 25, it shows 1 ... 23 24 25 26 27 ... $last_page.

I've been trying for awhile but I just have a bunch of nested if statements and it seems like there really has to be a better way. 
[code]            if($page_number == 1)
              echo "1";
            else
              echo $first;
            if($max_page == 3) {
              if( ($page_number != 1) && ($page_number != $max_page) ) {
                  echo " " . $page_number;
              } else {
                  echo " " . $nav;
              }
            }
            if($max_page == 4) {
              if($page_number == 1) {
                  echo " " . $next;
              }
              if($page_number == 2) {
                  echo " " . $nav . " " . $next;
              }
              if($page_number == 3) {
                  echo " " . $prev . " " . $nav;
              }         
            }
            if($max_page > 4) {
              if($page_number == 1) {
                  echo " " . $next;
              }
              if($page_number == 2) {
                  echo " " . $nav . " " . $next;
              }
              if($page_number == 3) {
                  echo " " . $prev . " " . $nav;
              }         
            }
            if($max_page > 1) {
              if ($page_number == $max_page) {
                  echo " " . $page_number;
              } else {
                  echo " " . $last;
              }
            }
        }
[/code]

Any hints would be wonderful. 

[redbullmarky]

there's literally loads of ways of doing it. here's one i used a while back. it's definitely not perfect, but it works:

[code]
function do_crumbs($baseurl, $page, $total, $totalperpage, $crumbwidth = 5)
{
  // first calc the total number of pages
  $totalpages = ceil($total/$totalperpage);

  // crumbwidth is the amout of numbers to show on screen
  $halfwidth = floor($crumbwidth/2);

  $startpage = max(1, $page-$halfwidth);
  $endpage = min($startpage + $crumbwidth - 1, $totalpages);

  if ($totalpages > 1)
  {
      $prevlink = "Prev";
      $nextlink = "Next";

      // adding to a plain URL, or a URL with parameters already?
      $appender = stristr($baseurl, '?') ? '&':'?';

      if ($page > 1)
      {
        $prevlink = "<a href='$baseurl{$appender}p=".($page-1)."'>$prevlink</a>";
      }
      if ($page < $totalpages)
      {
        $nextlink = "<a href='$baseurl{$appender}p=".($page+1)."'>$nextlink</a>";
      }

      echo "<a href='$baseurl{$appender}p=1' style='color:#000' class='invlink'>|&lt;</a> $prevlink ";

      for ($cnt=$startpage; $cnt<=$endpage; $cnt++)
      {
        if ($page<>$cnt)
        {
            $thislink = $baseurl;

            if (stristr($baseurl, '?'))
              $thislink.='&';
            else
              $thislink.='?';
            $thislink.='p='.$cnt;
            echo "<a style='color:#000' class='invlink' href='$thislink'>$cnt</a> ";
        }
        else
            echo "[<strong>$cnt</strong>] ";
      }
      echo " $nextlink <a href='$baseurl{$appender}p=$totalpages' style='color:#000' class='invlink'>&gt;|</a>";
  }
}
[/code]

just pass it:
- the base URL (ie, the URL, with all its $_GET parameters except the 'current page' number
- the current page number
- the number of items per page
- the 'crumb width' - that is, the number of pages you want to show on the screen. optional parameter that defaults to 5.

the CSS class 'invlink' is my inverse link - ie, "do not put an underline on this link UNTIL i hover over it".

play around with it. should work in its current state, although i'd prob recommend doing some work on it.