Confused with The Loop

Just noticed that I pasted the wrong code, so here I go again, same problem and this time this is the right code I’m using in my category page:

<div id="content-categories">

<div class="breadcrumbs-categories"><h1>NOTICIAS DE <?php printf( __( '%s' ), '<span>' . single_cat_title( '', false ) . '</span>' ); ?> EN ESPA?OL</h1></div>

<?php query_posts('showposts=3'); if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

<div class="title-categories"><h3><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3></div>

<div class="date-categories"><?php the_time('F jS, Y') ?> Escrito por <?php the_author() ?></div>

<div class="maincontents-categories">

<p><?php echo substr(get_the_excerpt(), 0,500); ?></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" class="readmore">Leer m&aacute;s...</a>

</div>

<?php endwhile;?>

<?php else : ?>

<h1>Nothing Found</h1>

<?php endif; wp_reset_query(); ?>

Thanks in advance!

Might be a little overkill but try this and let me know if it works:

<?php $my_query = new WP_Query('showposts=3');
  while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post();
  $do_not_duplicate[] = $post->ID ?>

Almost forgot, end it with this:

<?php endwhile; ?>

instead of what you currently have.

Hey doc4, nope, it shows the same thing.

Try this just to see if it separates the posts:

<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

Well not sure because it throws me an error on line 64, I have this on that line:

<?php get_footer(); ?>

Actually, having the following it separates the posts, but, now I have 10 posts instead the 3 I need in that section:

<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

<!-- START CONTENTS 1 -->

<div class="title-categories"><h3><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3></div>

<div class="date-categories"><?php the_time('F jS, Y') ?> Escrito por <?php the_author() ?></div>

<!-- Start Contents -->

<div class="maincontents-categories">

<p><?php echo substr(get_the_excerpt(), 0,500); ?></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" class="readmore">Leer m&aacute;s...</a>

</div>

<?php endwhile;?>

<?php else : ?>

<h1>Nothing Found</h1>

<?php endif; wp_reset_query(); ?>

Okay, save your code in a text editor and replace it with this just to see if it’s working. I’m trying to get rid of anything not related and break this down to the basics. Leave the header and footer code of course but if you have another loop remove it for now.

<div id="content-categories">

<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<div class="maincontents-categories">

<p><?php the_title(); ?></p>

</div>

<?php endwhile; endif; ?>

Yup, that one works but works like in my past reply, just throws me all 10 posts, breaking my head here and don’t understand what might be wrong.

Okay, hang on a second

You probably have the max posts set to ten under settings which is why you’re seeing ten total.

Anyway try this:

<div id="content-categories">

<?php query_posts('showposts=3'); ?>
<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<div class="maincontents-categories">

<p><?php the_title(); ?></p>

</div>

<?php endwhile; endif; ?>

Yes, I realize this is basically what you had before.

Yup I know, the thing is, in a few pages I’ll need more than 10, in others just 3 or 5 of them, anyway, tried that one and no, it just output 3 posts but it doesn’t separate them, always the same 3 posts, the weird thing is this, it prints the right category name, for that I’m using:

<?php printf( __( ‘%s’ ), ‘<span>’ . single_cat_title( ”, false ) . ‘</span>’ ); ?>

But that’s it, gee!, where’s the vodka when needed?

Wait a minute, I just realized to make this work we probably need to tell the page what categories we are specifically wanting to see. So you would normally split this page into several IF/THEN statements. IF category 1 show posts from category 1. Then another loop for another category.

Try this, hopefully my code is somewhat sound. Replace the two names of the categories with the categories you’re wanting to display.

<?php
if (in_category('1')) {
  $category_name = 'your_category_name';
} else if (in_category('2')) {
  $category_name = 'your_second_category_name';
}
query_posts( "category_name=$category_name&posts_per_page=3"); ?>
<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

<div class="maincontents-categories">

<p><?php the_title(); ?></p>

</div>

<?php endwhile; endif; ?>

It is throwing me an error on line 40 which is:

<?php endwhile; endif; ?>

Try it by removing the query from the category.php file and query with this in your theme’s functions.php:

function my_post_queries( $query ) {
  // not an admin page and is the main query
  if (!is_admin() && $query->is_main_query()){

    if(is_category()){
      $query->set('posts_per_page', 3);
    }

  }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'my_post_queries' );

https://www.billerickson.net/customize-the-wordpress-query/
https://developer.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/querying-posts-without-query_posts/
https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/50761/when-to-use-wp-query-query-posts-and-pre-get-posts

Hi keesiemeijer, good day!

That did the trick, and seems like it works nicely, however, in that document, where the 3 posts are appearing there’s a sidebar with a different design elements where it needs to have 8 posts of the same category, calling the posts there just output 3 because of the function, what should I do, create a new function with a different name with more posts to be displayed? Thanks so much for the help!