---
title: Adding arguments
summary: Add arguments to your fields, queries, and mutations
---

# Working with generic types

[CHILDREN asList]

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Help us improve it by joining #graphql on the [Community Slack](https://www.silverstripe.org/blog/community-slack-channel/),
and report any issues at [github.com/silverstripe/silverstripe-graphql](https://github.com/silverstripe/silverstripe-graphql). 
Docs for the current stable version (3.x) can be found
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[/alert]

## Adding arguments

Fields can have arguments, and queries are just fields, so let's add a simple
way of influencing our query response:

**app/_graphql/schema.yml**
```yaml
  queries:
    'readCountries(limit: Int!)': '[Country]'
```

We've provided the required argument `limit` to the query, which will allow us to truncate the results.
Let's update the resolver accordingly.

```php
    public static function resolveReadCountries($obj, array $args = [])
    {
        $limit = $args['limit'];
        $results = [];
        $countries = Injector::inst()->get(Locales::class)->getCountries();
        $countries = array_slice($countries, 0, $limit);
        foreach ($countries as $code => $name) {
            $results[] = [
                'code' => $code,
                'name' => $name
            ];
        }

        return $results;
    }

```

Now let's try our query again. This time, notice that the IDE is telling us we're missing a required argument.

```graphql
query {
  readCountries(limit: 5) {
    name
    code
  }
}
```

This works pretty well, but maybe it's a bit over the top to *require* the `limit` argument. We want to optimise
performance, but we also don't want to burden the developer with tedium like this. Let's give it a default value.

**app/_graphql/schema.yml**
```yaml
  queries:
    'readCountries(limit: Int = 20)': '[Country]'
```

Rebuild the schema, and notice that the IDE is no longer yelling at you for a `limit` argument.

Let's take this a step further by turning this in to a proper [paginated result](adding_pagination).

### Further reading

[CHILDREN]