I don't know what version of CI you were using back in 2013, but I am using CI3 and I just tested with two null parameters passed to limit() and there was no LIMIT or OFFSET in the rendered query (I checked by using get_compiled_select()).
This means that -- assuming your have correctly posted your coding attempt -- you don't need to change anything (or at least the old issue is no longer a CI issue).
If this was my project, this is how I would write the method to return an indexed array of objects or an empty array if there are no qualifying rows in the result set.
function nationList($limit = null, $start = null) {
// assuming the language value is sanitized/validated/whitelisted
return $this->db
->select('nation.id, nation.name_' . $this->session->userdata('language') . ' AS name')
->from('nation')
->order_by("name")
->limit($limit, $start)
->get()
->result();
}
These refinements remove unnecessary syntax, conditions, and the redundant loop.
For reference, here is the CI core code:
/**
* LIMIT
*
* @param int $value LIMIT value
* @param int $offset OFFSET value
* @return CI_DB_query_builder
*/
public function limit($value, $offset = 0)
{
is_null($value) OR $this->qb_limit = (int) $value;
empty($offset) OR $this->qb_offset = (int) $offset;
return $this;
}
So the $this->qb_limit and $this->qb_offset class objects are not updated because null evaluates as true when fed to is_null() or empty().