Define your own WordPress loop search

We all know what the WordPressLoop is right? If not,there are many great tutorials around the web that explain theWordPress Loop.

One of the easiest ways to navigate and manipulate the loop is touse the function called query_posts. NathanRice callsit aWordPress developers best friend.

When you use query_posts,however, you risk the following:

• Potential to interfere with plugins which make use of theLoop.
• Potential to invalidate WordPress conditional tags.
• Having to deal with resetting, rewinding, offsetting…

I say skip query_posts.In a way you’ll still be using it, but the better (and sometimeseasier) technique is to instantiate your own WP_Query objectand create your own loop.

Creating Your Own Loop With WP_Query

The first step is to instantiate your own variable using theWP_Query class.

What we’ll be doing in this example is creating a common feature onblogs, which is to display a list of the recent articles.

 

<?php
    $recentPosts = new WP_Query();
    $recentPosts->query('showposts=5');
?>

 

All I’ve done in the above code is defined a variablenamed recentPosts andinstantiated an instance of WP_Query.

I then used a method of WP_Query tostart a query (pretty much the same thing asusingquery_posts). You even use the same usageparameters as query_posts.

Now it’s time to start our own loop:

 

<?php while ($recentPosts->have_posts()) : $recentPosts->the_post(); ?>
   <!-- do some stuff here -->
<?php endwhile; ?>

 

Notice the use of the recentPosts variableto start the loop. We utilize two methods of WP_Query, whichis have_posts and the_post.You can read more about those two methods on my article GlobalVariables and the WordPress Loop.

The beauty of this is that once you are inside your own loop, youcan use the standardpost tags.

The Full Code

Here’s the full code for showing the last five recent posts usingyour own loop:

 

<h3>Recent Articles</h3>
<ul>
<?php
    $recentPosts = new WP_Query();
    $recentPosts->query('showposts=5');
?>
<?php while ($recentPosts->have_posts()) : $recentPosts->the_post(); ?>
    <li><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></a></li>
<?php endwhile; ?>
</ul>

 

Update: Using Pagination

This comment is from AaronHarun -

@Ron and Monika

If you use the query:

 

$recentPosts->query('showposts=5'.'&paged='.$paged);

 

it will automatically page the wury based on the page numberpassed
through the url eg “/page/4″

However, this doesn’t work with the“post_nav_link” function because it
only checks the $wp_query variable. To getaround this you have to
trick the function by switching$wp_query on it. Add thefirst block
before your custom loop and the second after to achieve thiseffect.

 

<?php //query_posts('paged='.$paged);
$temp = $wp_query;
$wp_query= null;
   $wp_query = new WP_Query();
   $wp_query->query('showposts=5'.'&paged='.$paged);
?>

 

 

<?php $wp_query = null; $wp_query = $temp;?>

 

Thanks Aaron for the contribution.

Conclusion

Defining your own loop using WP_Query is an easy way to run yourown custom queries without interfering with the default Loop. It’salso a great way to run multiple loops that are completelyindependent of each other.

WordPress Resources mentioned:

• WP_Query
• query_posts
• TheLoop
• PostTemplate Tags