Using WP_Query to create custom queries at Art Flutter

while reading my usual RSS feeds I stumbled upon this article on displaying your latest post.

It took me eye as I have been busy implementing similar things for my upcoming website, except I have been using WordPress’ WP_Query function to achieve the same results.

Basically WP_Query is used to create a seperate mini-loop outside of your main loop. It has many advantages over using a custom SQL query like

You don’t need to know proper SQL syntax
It’s a core WordPress function, so if the database structure changes it will still work
is more concise and uses less code
highly customisable in that you can easy modify the post parameters (specify category, author, sort order, etc.)

The below is just a simple demo the grabs a link to the latest post. It shows how easy WP_Query really is to use.


< ?php

$my_query = new WP_Query('showposts=1');
while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post();
echo '<a href="' . get_permalink() . '">' . the_title('','',FALSE) . '</a>';
endwhile;

?>