How to display the latest 6 posts (one post from each category only)

Might try this:

<?php
//for each category, show 1 post
$cat_args=array(
  'orderby' => 'name',
  'order' => 'ASC'
   );
$categories=get_categories($cat_args);
  foreach($categories as $category) {
    $args=array(
      'showposts' => 1,
      'category__in' => array($category->term_id),
      'caller_get_posts'=>1
    );
    $posts=get_posts($args);
      if ($posts) {
        echo '<p>Category: <a href="' . get_category_link( $category->term_id ) . '" title="' . sprintf( __( "View all posts in %s" ), $category->name ) . '" ' . '>' . $category->name.'</a> </p> ';
        foreach($posts as $post) {
          setup_postdata($post); ?>
          <p><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></p>
          <?php
        } // foreach($posts
      } // if ($posts
    } // foreach($categories
?>

Hi Michael

Thank you very much

I forgot to mention that I have 8 parent categories, each of them have few child categories, and I only want show the latest 6 posts which come from different parent category, can you help with this?

Thanks!

Didn’t test this but try:

<?php
//for each category that has no parent, show 1 post
$cat_args=array(
  'orderby' => 'name',
  'order' => 'ASC'
   );
$categories=get_categories($cat_args);
  foreach($categories as $category) {
    if ($category->parent == 0) {
      $args=array(
        'showposts' => 1,
        'category__in' => array($category->term_id),
        'caller_get_posts'=>1
      );
      $posts=get_posts($args);
        if ($posts) {
          echo '<p>Category: <a href="' . get_category_link( $category->term_id ) . '" title="' . sprintf( __( "View all posts in %s" ), $category->name ) . '" ' . '>' . $category->name.'</a> </p> ';
          foreach($posts as $post) {
            setup_postdata($post); ?>
            <p><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></p>
            <?php
          } // foreach($posts
        } // if ($posts
      } //if parent == 0
    } // foreach($categories
?>

Hi Michael, this doesn’t show the posts under child categories, it only display the posts directly under the parent category

Well I’m not sure what you are wanting then.

Please review Function_Reference/get_categories and change your arguments accordingly.

“I only want show the latest 6 posts which come from different parent category…”

“it only display the posts directly under the parent category ..”

Sounds like he did as you asked?

Hi Michael,

Sorry about the confusion, my English is not good enough.

for example I have the following 8 categories and each parent category have two sub categories:

Parent Category 1
— Sub Category 1 (10 posts)
— Sub Category 2 (10 posts)

Parent Category 2
— Sub Category 1 (10 posts)
— Sub Category 2 (10 posts)

Parent Category 3
— Sub Category 1 (10 posts)
— Sub Category 2 (10 posts)

Parent Category 4
— Sub Category 1 (10 posts)
— Sub Category 2 (10 posts)

Parent Category 5
— Sub Category 1 (10 posts)
— Sub Category 2 (10 posts)

Parent Category 6
— Sub Category 1 (10 posts)
— Sub Category 2 (10 posts)

Parent Category 7
— Sub Category 1 (10 posts)
— Sub Category 2 (10 posts)

Parent Category 8
— Sub Category 1 (10 posts)
— Sub Category 2 (10 posts)

I have 10 posts under each sub category, now on the index page, I want show the latest 6 posts, which each of the post has to come from different parent category(the post is actually belong to the sub category), does this make sense?

Okay I see what you want but not sure how to do that…maybe someone else can present a solution.

can anybody please help me?

Try this code: https://wordpress.pastebin.ca/1753731.

Why not just have 6 separate pieces of code with each one only including the relevant 8 categories with the latest 6 posts?

@perthmetro,
I think the problem with that approach is that you can’t know ahead of time which 6 of the 8 will have the latest posts. I believe the code I posted earlier will do the job.

if you take the last code that @michaelh posted, and change:

'category__in' => array($category->term_id),

into:

'cat' => $category->term_id,

then hopefully it won’t just use only the parent category, but also allow the child categories.
(https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Template_Tags/query_posts#Category_Parameters)
(it obviously will output 8 posts)

@vtxyzzy:
your code looks like it is going to do the job –
i just wonder, would the full query of all posts not use a lot of resources?

I thought about that, but couldn’t come up with a good alternative. You could limit the number, but then you would stand a chance of not getting 6 recent posts.

You could use multiple loops each retrieving 1 post and exclude that category from remaining loops. but would six queries for 1 post each be better than one? I don’t know how to decide that.

I’m not sure i’m gettin’ this ?????