In Business / Print
Strategic thinking for
printed & digital communications
At All Things Creative, we focus on solutions that are results driven, audience focused, measurable, and sustainable. We specialize in:
- simplifying the complex
- making information accessible
- commanding attention
- targeted messaging that resonates
We are the strategic thinking behind the design. We organize your thoughts, turn them into ideas that make sense, lay out a plan of action, and deliver attention grabbing creative work that resonates with your audience.
Strategy
We don't just make it pretty—we make it work. We find the right solution.
Design
Easy to understand, easy to use, commanding attention.
Development
We have the technical expertise to bring your ideas to life.
We Collaborate With…
Businesses, large & small
Building and maintaining your brand, structuring your marketing for maximum results
Nonprofits
Telling your story through compelling media, staying in touch with donors, & promoting event
Government
New approaches to outreach, education, and awareness initiatives
Some Of Our Partners
Results-driven, audience focused, attention grabbing
creative work. That’s what we do.
In Nonprofit / Print
Career Guidance Toolkit
Youth for the Future (Y4F) is a program of the International Youth Foundation (IYF) carried out in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Government of Jordan. The goal of the program is to support youth at-risk in realizing productive...
In Branding / Nonprofit / Print
Race for Results 2015 Reception Materials
Race for Results is a special series of events for the Epilepsy Foundation’s sponsors and donors that is part of the National Walk for Epilepsy. Branding Since the Foundation wanted a Kentucky Derby theme for these events, the Race for Results branding was designed to...
In Branding / Business / Marketing / Web
ShareServe
ShareServe gives current students and graduates the opportunity to reduce college debt and gain experience while serving their communities.
Codex
Codex tools: Log in
Attention Interested in functions, hooks, classes, or methods? Check out the new WordPress Code Reference!
Function Reference/query posts
Languages: English • Italiano • 日本語 • 中文(简体) • Português do Brasil • (Add your language)
Contents
1 Description
2 Caveats
2.1 Alters Main Loop
2.2 Secondary Loops
2.3 Pagination
2.4 Additional SQL Queries
3 Usage
3.1 Preserving Existing Query Parameters
3.2 Combining Parameters
4 Parameters
5 Examples
5.1 Exclude Categories From Your Home Page
5.2 Retrieve a Particular Post
5.3 All Posts in a Category
5.4 Syndication Feeds
5.5 Passing variables to query_posts
5.5.1 Example 1
5.5.2 Example 2
5.5.3 Example 3
5.5.4 Example 4
5.5.5 Example 5
6 Change Log
7 Source File
8 Resources
9 Related
9.1 Articles
9.2 Code Documentation
Description
Note: This function isn't meant to be used by plugins or themes. As explained later, there are better, more performant options to alter the main query. query_posts() is overly simplistic and problematic way to modify main query of a page by replacing it with new instance of the query. It is inefficient (re-runs SQL queries) and will outright fail in some circumstances (especially often when dealing with posts pagination). Any modern WP code should use more reliable methods, like making use of pre_get_posts hook, for this purpose.
WP_Query, query_posts and get_posts use cases explained
query_posts() is a way to alter the main query that WordPress uses to display posts. It does this by putting the main query to one side, and replacing it with a new query. To clean up after a call to query_posts, make a call to wp_reset_query(), and the original main query will be restored.
It should be noted that using this to replace the main query on a page can increase page loading times, in worst case scenarios more than doubling the amount of work needed or more. While easy to use, the function is also prone to confusion and problems later on. See the note further below on caveats for details.
For general post queries, use WP_Query or get_posts
It is strongly recommended that you use the pre_get_posts filter instead, and alter the main query by checking is_main_query
For example, on the homepage, you would normally see the latest 10 posts. If you want to show only 5 posts (and don't care about pagination), you can use query_posts() like so:
query_posts( 'posts_per_page=5' );
Here is similar code using pre_get_posts in functions.php :
function five_posts_on_homepage( $query ) {
if ( $query->is_home() && $query->is_main_query() ) {
$query->set( 'posts_per_page', 5 );
}
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'five_posts_on_homepage' );
Note: The pre_get_posts action doesn't work for Page requests.
Caveats
query_posts() is only one way amongst many to query the database and generate a list of posts. Before deciding to use query_posts(), be sure to understand the drawbacks.
Alters Main Loop
query_posts() is meant for altering the main loop. It does so by replacing the query used to generate the main loop content. Once you use query_posts(), your post-related global variables and template tags will be altered. Conditional tags that are called after you call query_posts() will also be altered - this may or may not be the intended result.
Secondary Loops
To create secondary listings (for example, a list of related posts at the bottom of the page, or a list of links in a sidebar widget), try making a new instance of WP_Query or use get_posts().
If you must use query_posts(), make sure you call wp_reset_query() after you're done.
Pagination
Pagination won't work correctly, unless you set the 'paged' query var appropriately: adding the paged parameter
Additional SQL Queries
If you use query_posts within a template page, WordPress will have already executed the database query and retrieved the records by the time it gets to your template page (that's how it knew which template page to serve up!). So when you over-ride the default query with query_posts(), you're essentially throwing away the default query and its results and re-executing another query against the database.
This is not necessarily a problem, especially if you're dealing with a smaller blog-based site. Developers of large sites with big databases and heavy visitor traffic may wish to consider alternatives, such as modifying the default request directly (before it's called). The request filter can be used to achieve exactly this.
The 'parse_query' and the 'pre_get_posts' filters are also available to modify the internal $query object that is used to generate the SQL to query the database.
Usage
