How to use paginate with a date filter?

Question

Assuming that I’ve a total number of 10 entries in my section('exhibitions') where 8 of them have their entry.endingDate < now, I limit the display to 8 entries but the paginate shows a next button whereas the next page is empty:

{% paginate craft.entries.section('exhibitions').limit(8) as pastExhibitions %}
    {% for entry in pastExhibitions %}
        {% if entry.endingDate < now %}
            …
        {% endif %}
    {% endfor %}

    {% if paginate.prevUrl %}
        <a href="{{ paginate.prevUrl }}" class="button previous">&larr; Précédent</a>
    {% endif %}
    {% if paginate.nextUrl %}
        <a href="{{ paginate.nextUrl }}" class="button next">Suivant &rarr;</a>
    {% endif %}

{% endpaginate %}

How can I add a date filter, in this case < now, to the paginate configuration in order to only paginate on entries that are < now?

Answer 1

{% paginate craft.entries.section('exhibitions').endingDate('< ' ~ now).limit(8) as pastExhibitions %}
  ...
{% endpaginate %}

This will paginate the entries in section exhibiitions with endingDate < now. That ~ is string concatination operator. The string '< 2014-08-04' queries for entries with endingDate in the past.