When to use WP_query(), query_posts() and pre_get_posts

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I read @nacin’s You don’t know Query yesterday and was sent down a bit of a querying rabbit hole. Before yesterday, I was (wrongly) using query_posts() for all my querying needs. Now I’m a little bit wiser about using WP_Query(), but still have some gray areas.

What I think I know for sure:

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If I’m making additional loops anywhere on a page—in the sidebar, in a footer, any kind of “related posts”, etc—I want to be using WP_Query(). I can use that repeatedly on a single page without any harm. (right?).

What I don’t know for sure

  1. When do I use @nacin’s pre_get_posts vs. WP_Query()? Should I use pre_get_posts for everything now?
  2. When I want to modify the loop in a template page — lets say I want to modify a taxonomy archive page — do I remove the if have_posts : while have_posts : the_post part and write my own WP_Query()? Or do I modify the output using pre_get_posts in my functions.php file?

tl;dr

The tl;dr rules I’d like to draw from this are:

  1. Never use query_posts anymore
  2. When running multiple queries on a single page, use WP_Query()
  3. When modifying a loop, do this __________________.

Thanks for any wisdom

Terry

ps: I have seen and read: When should you use WP_Query vs query_posts() vs get_posts()? Which adds another dimension — get_posts. But doesn’t deal with pre_get_posts at all.

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5 comments

  1. You are right to say:

    Never use query_posts anymore

    pre_get_posts

    pre_get_posts is a filter, for altering any query. It is most often used to alter only the ‘main query’:

    add_action('pre_get_posts','wpse50761_alter_query');
function wpse50761_alter_query($query){

      if( $query->is_main_query() ){
        //Do something to main query
      }
}

    (I would also check that is_admin() returns false – though this may be redundant.). The main query appears in your templates as:

    if( have_posts() ):
    while( have_posts() ): the_post();
       //The loop
    endwhile;
endif;

    If you ever feel the need to edit this loop – use pre_get_posts. i.e. If you are tempted to use query_posts() – use pre_get_posts instead.

    WP_Query

    The main query is an important instance of a WP_Query object. WordPress uses it to decide which template to use, for example, and any arguments passed into the url (e.g. pagination) are all channelled into that instance of the WP_Query object.

    For secondary loops (e.g. in side-bars, or ‘related posts’ lists) you’ll want to create your own separate instance of the WP_Query object. E.g. 

    $my_secondary_loop = new WP_Query(...);
if( $my_secondary_loop->have_posts() ):
    while( $my_secondary_loop->have_posts() ): $my_secondary_loop->the_post();
       //The secondary loop
    endwhile;
endif;
wp_reset_postdata();

    Notice wp_reset_postdata(); – this is because the secondary loop will override the global $post variable which identifies the ‘current post’. This essentially resets that to the $post we are on.

    get_posts()

    This is essentially a wrapper for a separate instance of a WP_Query object. This returns an array of post objects. The methods used in the loop above are no longer available to you. This isn’t a ‘Loop’, simply an array of post object.

    <ul>
<?php
global $post;
$args = array( 'numberposts' => 5, 'offset'=> 1, 'category' => 1 );
$myposts = get_posts( $args );
foreach( $myposts as $post ) :  setup_postdata($post); ?>
    <li><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></li>
<?php endforeach; wp_reset_postdata(); ?>
</ul>

    In response to your questions

    1. Use pre_get_posts to alter your main query. Use a separate WP_Query object (method 2) for secondary loops in the template pages.
    2. If you want to alter the query of the main loop, use pre_get_posts.

  2. There are two different contexts for loops:

    • main loop that happens based on URL request and is processed before templates are loaded
    • secondary loops that happen in any other way, called from template files or otherwise

    Problem with query_posts() is that it is secondary loop that tries to be main one and fails miserably. Thus forget it exists.

    To modify main loop

    • don’t use query_posts()
    • use pre_get_posts filter with $query->is_main_query() check
    • alternately use request filter (a little too rough so above is better)

    To run secondary loop

    Use new WP_Query or get_posts() which are pretty much interchangeable (latter is thin wrapper for former).

    To cleanup

    Use wp_reset_query() if you used query_posts() or messed with global $wp_query directly – so you will almost never need to.

    Use wp_reset_postdata() if you used the_post() or setup_postdata() or messed with global $post and need to restore initial state of post-related things.

  3. There are legitimate scenarios for using query_posts($query), for example:

    1. You want to display a list of posts or custom-post-type posts on a page (using a page template)

    2. You want to make pagination of those posts work

    Now why would you want to display it on a page instead of using an archive template?

    1. It’s more intuitive for an administrator (your customer?) – they can see the page in the ‘Pages’

    2. It’s better for adding it to menus (without the page, they’d have to add the url directly)

    3. If you want to display additional content (text, post thumbnail, or any custom meta content) on the template, you can easily get it from the page (and it all makes more sense for the customer too). See if you used an archive template, you’d either need to hardcode the additional content or use for example theme/plugin options (which makes it less intuitive for the customer)

    Here’s a simplified example code (which would be on your page template – e.g. page-page-of-posts.php):

    /**
 * Template Name: Page of Posts
 */

while(have_posts()) { // original main loop - page content
  the_post();
  the_title(); // title of the page
  the_content(); // content of the page
  // etc...
}

// now we display list of our custom-post-type posts

// first obtain pagination parametres
$paged = 1;
if(get_query_var('paged')) {
  $paged = get_query_var('paged');
} elseif(get_query_var('page')) {
  $paged = get_query_var('page');
}

// query posts and replace the main query (page) with this one (so the pagination works)
query_posts(array('post_type' => 'my_post_type', 'post_status' => 'publish', 'paged' => $paged));

// pagination
next_posts_link();
previous_posts_link();

// loop
while(have_posts()) {
  the_post();
  the_title(); // your custom-post-type post's title
  the_content(); // // your custom-post-type post's content
}

wp_reset_query(); // sets the main query (global $wp_query) to the original page query (it obtains it from global $wp_the_query variable) and resets the post data

// So, now we can display the page-related content again (if we wish so)
while(have_posts()) { // original main loop - page content
  the_post();
  the_title(); // title of the page
  the_content(); // content of the page
  // etc...
}

    Now, to be perfectly clear, we could avoid using query_posts() here too and use WP_Query instead – like so:

    // ...

global $wp_query;
$wp_query = new WP_Query(array('your query vars here')); // sets the new custom query as a main query

// your custom-post-type loop here

wp_reset_query();

// ...

    But, why would we do that when we have such a nice little function available for it?

  4. I modify WordPress query from functions.php:

    //unfortunately, "IS_PAGE" condition doesn't work in pre_get_posts (it's WORDPRESS behaviour)
//so you can use `add_filter('posts_where', ....);`    OR   modify  "PAGE" query directly into template file

add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'myFunction' );
function myFunction($query) {
    if ( ! is_admin() && $query->is_main_query() )  {
        if (  $query->is_category ) {
            $query->set( 'post_type', array( 'post', 'page', 'my_postType' ) );
            add_filter( 'posts_where' , 'MyFilterFunction_1' ) && $GLOBALS['call_ok']=1; 
        }
    }
}
function MyFilterFunction_1($where) {
   return (empty($GLOBALS['call_ok']) || !($GLOBALS['call_ok']=false)  ? $where :  $where . " AND ({$GLOBALS['wpdb']->posts}.post_name NOT LIKE 'Journal%')"; 
}

  5. Just to outline some improvements to the accepted answer since WordPress evolved over the time and some things are different now (five years later):

    pre_get_posts is a filter, for altering any query. It is most often used to alter only the ‘main query’:

    Actually is an action hook. Not a filter, and it will affect any query.

    The main query appears in your templates as:

    if( have_posts() ):
    while( have_posts() ): the_post();
       //The loop
    endwhile;
endif;

    Actually, this is also not true. The function have_posts iterates the global $wp_query object that is not related only to the main query. global $wp_query; may be altered with the secondary queries also.

    function have_posts() {
    global $wp_query;
    return $wp_query->have_posts();
}

    get_posts()

    This is essentially a wrapper for a separate instance of a WP_Query object.

    Actually, nowadays WP_Query is a class, so we have an instance of a class.

    To conclude: At the time @StephenHarris wrote most likely all this was true, but over the time things in WordPress have been changed.