Title: Custom loop in single post template Last modified: August 20, 2016 --- # Custom loop in single post template * [alexvaxx](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alexvaxx/) * (@alexvaxx) * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/) * Hi there * I have a problem that I can’t seem to solve on my own: I’m doing this portfolio for a photographer friend, and we’re uploading each picture as a new blog entry, attaching it using the “featured image”-feature. That’s not the problem, works fine. * The thing is I want to be able to cycle through all the pictures, jcarousel-wise, in each category. Right now when viewing a single picture, I load it through the single-post-template-file, and then using next_post_link() and previous_post_link(), you can go to the next or previous picture. That also work fine. * But I figure, if I want to able to loop through the pictures with jcarousel, I need to write some changes to the loop in the single-post-template. * I need to load: 1. the current post (like now; post no. 5 for instance in a category) 2. all the next posts in the category (no. 5 to 10 for instance) 3. all the posts before the current post (no. 1 to 4 for instance) * I don’t suspect this to be too complicated, I just can’t seem to wrap my head around it on my own. Thank you very much to everyone with ideas to throw in. * //A. Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 17 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/page/2/?output_format=md) * [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/) * (@vtxyzzy) * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/#post-2217833) * What about this approach: - Save the current post - Get the category and ID of the current post - Get all posts in that category - Loop through the array of posts checking IDs against the saved ID - Until you find the saved ID copy posts to the ‘before’ array - After you find the saved ID, copy to the ‘after’ array * Thread Starter [alexvaxx](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alexvaxx/) * (@alexvaxx) * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/#post-2217855) * Thank you for that, I’ll try it out and get back to you! * Thread Starter [alexvaxx](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alexvaxx/) * (@alexvaxx) * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/#post-2217891) * So, I couldn’t quite figure out how to do the whole “copy posts to array”-deal, so I endedup doing this instead: * [LINK TO PASTEBIN](http://pastebin.com/8pWQA0L7) * Or in other words: - Display the first loop and save the id in a variable - Create a new loop that checks against the variable to make sure it only displays the following posts - Create a third loop that checks against the variable to make sure it only displays the items that are “younger” than the original post * This seems to me to be a bit ineffecient, very php and database request-heavy, so if there’s a smarter way, please let me know! * [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/) * (@vtxyzzy) * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/#post-2217892) * Sorry for the confusion. If you do a query to get all posts in the category, they are in an array in $wp_query->posts. You can treat this just like any other array. * Thread Starter [alexvaxx](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alexvaxx/) * (@alexvaxx) * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/#post-2217893) * So the thing I don’t understand is how I store those posts that are either too“ young” or too “old” to be displayed yet, in another array. * Can I just go: * ``` if ( $original_post >= $post->ID ) $before[] = $wp_query->posts; ``` * ?? * And even if that’s the case, how do I then retrieve those posts from the before- array, when I’m ready to use them? * I’m sorry, but I’ve read the Codex entrys on the loop so many times, but it’s still very complicated to me. * //A * [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/) * (@vtxyzzy) * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/#post-2217894) * I think this will work (UNTESTED). Assume current post ID is in $current_ID: * ``` $found_current = 0; foreach ($wp_query->posts as $apost) { if ($apost->ID == $current_ID) { $found_current = 1; } elseif ($found_current) { $after[] = $apost; } else { $before[] = $apost; } } ``` * Thread Starter [alexvaxx](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alexvaxx/) * (@alexvaxx) * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/#post-2217895) * Thank you, but still: I don’t understand how I can then go ahead and actually retrieve/display those posts in the wanted order? * [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/) * (@vtxyzzy) * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/#post-2217896) * Is this better? * ``` query_posts( array ('category_name' => $categoryname, 'posts_per_page' =>-1)); if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); $found_current = 0; if ( $original_post == $post->ID ) { $found_current = 1; } elseif ($found_current) { // do after stuff } else { //do before stuff } endwhile; endif; ``` * Thread Starter [alexvaxx](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alexvaxx/) * (@alexvaxx) * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/#post-2217912) * Nope 🙂 * It just loops through all the posts in a regular order starting at number 1. * And what I don’t understand is, you say elseif ($found_current) but “if found_current” what? I guess its just a syntax I’m unfamiliar with, but it seems to me you’re not comparing it against anything? * But thank you anyway. * [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/) * (@vtxyzzy) * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/#post-2217920) * Did you replace lines 9 – 19 in your pastebin code with the lines I gave you? The value of $original_post is set in line 5, so that first loop must remain. * The if statement translated: if ($found_current has a value other than zero) * Thread Starter [alexvaxx](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alexvaxx/) * (@alexvaxx) * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/#post-2217933) * I tried that now, and it doesn’t quite work. Assume I’m viewing post no. 5, it ends up showing first post no 5 (yay), but then it shows 1,2,3,4, and 6,7,8,9,10 etc. But what I want is: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and then, 1, 2, 3, 4. Oh well. * [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/) * (@vtxyzzy) * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/#post-2217934) * Just reverse the posts array: * ``` query_posts( array ('category_name' => $categoryname, 'posts_per_page' =>-1)); if ( have_posts() ) : $wp_query->posts = array_reverse($wp_query->posts); while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); // rest of the code ``` * EDIT: That won’t quite give you what you want. I will work on a solution and get back to you. * Thread Starter [alexvaxx](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alexvaxx/) * (@alexvaxx) * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/#post-2217935) * Hah, now it shows 5, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1. What a mess. * But thanks fot not losing faith 🙂 * [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/) * (@vtxyzzy) * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/#post-2217936) * Please give this a try: * ``` query_posts( array ('category_name' => $categoryname, 'posts_per_page' =>-1)); if ( have_posts() ) : $before = array(); $after = array(); $found_current = 0; for ($i=0;$i < sizeof($wp_query->posts) ; ++$i ) { $this_post = $wp_query->posts[$i]; if ($original_post == $this_post->ID) { $save_current = $this_post; $found_current = 1; } elseif ($found_current) { $after[] = $this_post; } else { $before[] = $this_post; } } $before[] = $save_current; $wp_query->posts = array_merge(array_reverse($before), array_reverse($after)); while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); if ($post->ID == $original_post) continue; ``` * Thread Starter [alexvaxx](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alexvaxx/) * (@alexvaxx) * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/#post-2217939) * It works! Sort of.. I took out the array_reverse function and just merged the arrays like this array_merge($after, $before); And that did the trick, the posts show up like this now: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 1, 2, 3, 4. Fantastic. Thank you very much. But tell me: 1. Is your version more efficient than the one I posted in the pastebin? 2. Only if you have the time, could you explain to me what lines 3-15 in your code exactly do, just so that I feel like I’ve learned something 🙂 * //A. Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 17 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/page/2/?output_format=md) The topic ‘Custom loop in single post template’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [single post](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/single-post/) * [the-loop](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/the-loop/) * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 17 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [alexvaxx](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alexvaxx/) * Last activity: [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-loop-in-single-post-template/page/2/#post-2217954) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics