How to Get Posts Outside the Loop in WordPress

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September 8, 2023

Are you a WordPress developer looking to retrieve posts outside the loop? The WordPress loop is a powerful tool for displaying posts on your website, but what if you need to access and display posts outside of the loop? In this article, we’ll show you how to fetch posts using different methods and techniques, allowing you to display them wherever you need on your WordPress site. Whether you’re building a custom archive page, creating a custom widget, or implementing a unique template, this guide will help you retrieve posts outside the loop easily and efficiently. So, let’s dive in and expand your WordPress development skills!

					function wpturbo_get_posts_outside_loop() {
    $args = array(
        'post_type' => 'post',
        'posts_per_page' => 5
    );

    $query = new WP_Query( $args );

    if ( $query->have_posts() ) {
        while ( $query->have_posts() ) {
            $query->the_post();
            // Display the post data outside the loop
            ?>
            <h2><?php the_title(); ?></h2>
            <div class="entry-content"><?php the_content(); ?></div>
            <?php
        }
        wp_reset_postdata();
    }
}
wpturbo_get_posts_outside_loop();

The code snippet provided demonstrates how to retrieve and display posts outside the loop in WordPress.

To begin, we define a function called wpturbo_get_posts_outside_loop(). Inside this function, we specify the arguments for the query using the $args array. In this example, we are retrieving posts of the post post type and limiting the number of posts to 5.

$args = array(
    'post_type' => 'post',
    'posts_per_page' => 5
);

Next, we create a new instance of the WP_Query class and pass the $args array as an argument to the constructor.

$query = new WP_Query( $args );

We then perform a conditional check to determine if there are any posts available based on the query. If there are, we enter a while loop to iterate over each post. Within the loop, we make use of the the_post() function to set up the global $post variable and allow us to access the post data.

if ( $query->have_posts() ) {
    while ( $query->have_posts() ) {
        $query->the_post();
        // Display the post data outside the loop
        ?>
        <h2><?php the_title(); ?></h2>
        <div class="entry-content"><?php the_content(); ?></div>
        <?php
    }
    wp_reset_postdata();
}

Inside the loop, we can now access any post data we need. In this example, we display the post title using the the_title() function and the post content using the the_content() function. Feel free to modify the code to meet your specific needs.

Finally, we call the wp_reset_postdata() function outside the loop to restore the global $post variable to its original state.

By calling the wpturbo_get_posts_outside_loop() function, the code will execute and display the specified number of posts outside the loop in your WordPress site.

How to Get Posts Outside the Loop in WordPress

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