One Random Post (not random list or link)

Using this code below:

<?php
$rand_id = $wpdb->get_var(“SELECT ID FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_status = ‘publish’ ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1”);
query_posts(“p=$rand_id”);
?>
<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

~Post-related code and template tags go here. ~

<?php endwhile; ?>

How can I display more than one post? Thanks.

Repeat the codes above many times?

Change “LIMIT 1” to “LIMIT 4” if you want 4 of ’em.

I have changed it to LIMIT 4 but it only shows me 1 post.

That’s because:

$wpdb->get_var();

will grab only one variable (the ID of the randomly selected post), and:

query_posts("p=$rand_id");

collects just the one post. To display any number of random posts:

https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/91421#post-462158

Which is on the first page of results for:

https://www.ads-software.com/search/random+posts?forums=1

For that last link: I’m just saying…

The link:

https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/91421#post-462158

is good. How can I specify the category? How can I insert this two codes:

1. $now = date(‘Y-m-d’) . ‘ 23:59:59’;
2. AND (post_end_date >= ‘$now’ OR post_end_date IS NULL)

This is the modified code and it works except that pages and drafts also show in random posts. Anyone knows how to exclude it? Thanks.


<?php
global $wpdb;
$numposts = 3;
$now = date('Y-m-d') . ' 23:59:59';
$rand_posts = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT * FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_status = 'publish' AND post_end_date >= '$now' OR post_end_date IS NULL ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT $numposts");
foreach($rand_posts as $post) :
setup_postdata($post);
?>
~Post-related code and template tags go here. ~
<?php endforeach; ?>


It looks like the post_category is not used in the posts table anymore (if it ever did). instead you need to join with the post2cat table. The code below grabs 2 random posts from category 2.

<?php
global $wpdb;
$rand_posts = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT * FROM $wpdb->posts AS p, $wpdb->post2cat AS c WHERE p.ID = c.post_id AND c.category_id = 2 AND p.post_status = 'publish' ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 2");
foreach ($rand_posts as $post) :
setup_postdata($post);
?>