Title: Exclude Posts Without Attachments From Query
Last modified: August 19, 2016

---

# Exclude Posts Without Attachments From Query

 *  [GhostPool](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ghostpool/)
 * (@ghostpool)
 * [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exclude-posts-without-attachments-from-query/)
 * What I’m trying to do is generate a loop that only displays posts with image 
   attachments. I’m able to hide posts without attachments but they’re still counted
   in the loop, so if I have 5 posts and 1 does not have an attachment only 4 posts
   are displayed. I want to always be able to display 5 posts, so the next post 
   to have an attachment becomes post number 5.
 * This is the code I am using:
 *     ```
       <?php
       query_posts('posts_per_page=5&meta_key=slider&meta_value=Include'); if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
       <?php
       $args = array(
       'post_type' => 'attachment',
       'numberposts' => 1,
       'post_status' => null,
       'post_mime_type' => 'image',
       'orderby' => menu_order,
       'order' => ASC,
       'post_parent' => $post->ID
       );
       $attachments = get_posts($args);
       if ($attachments) {
       foreach ($attachments as $attachment) {
       ?>
       <div>
       	<span class="slider-text">
       		<h3><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" rel="bookmark" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php echo slidertitle(get_the_title());?></a></h3>
       	</span>
       	<div class="slider-image">
       		<img src="<?php echo wp_get_attachment_url($attachment->ID); ?>" alt="" />
       	</div>
       </div>
       <?php } ?>
       <?php endwhile; endif; wp_reset_query(); ?>
       ```
   
 * I would like to able to add a post_type=attachment criteria to query_posts but
   this does not work.

Viewing 12 replies - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

 *  [kz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kz/)
 * (@kz)
 * [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exclude-posts-without-attachments-from-query/#post-1358130)
 * Use below code after `$attachments = get_posts($args);`.
 *     ```
       if(count($attachments) > 0) :
       foreach($attachments as $attachment) : ?>
       <div>
         <span class="slider-text">
         <h3><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" rel="bookmark" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php echo slidertitle(get_the_title());?></a></h3>
         </span>
         <div class="slider-image">
           <img src="<?php echo wp_get_attachment_url($attachment->ID); ?>" alt="" />
         </div>
       </div>
       <?php endforeach; else : ?>
       <div>
         <span class="slider-text">
         <h3><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" rel="bookmark" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php echo slidertitle(get_the_title());?></a></h3>
         </span>
       </div>
       <?php endif; endwhile; endif; wp_reset_query(); ?>
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [GhostPool](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ghostpool/)
 * (@ghostpool)
 * [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exclude-posts-without-attachments-from-query/#post-1358163)
 * Hi kz,
 * The problem with this code is that it still loads the posts without attachments
   into the loop as you’ve used the else condition. Even removing the else condition
   and simply using if(count($attachments) > 0) still counts the posts without attachments
   in the loop. I think they need to be excluded in the query_posts loop before 
   even reaching the get_posts query.
 *  [kz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kz/)
 * (@kz)
 * [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exclude-posts-without-attachments-from-query/#post-1358280)
 *     ```
       <?php
       global $wpdb;
       $posts = $wpdb->get_results
       ("
         SELECT *
         FROM $wpdb->posts
         WHERE
             post_status = 'publish'
           AND
             ID IN (
       	SELECT DISTINCT post_parent
       	FROM $wpdb->posts
       	WHERE
       	  post_parent > 0
       	AND
       	  post_type = 'attachment'
       	AND
       	  post_mime_type IN ('image/jpeg', 'image/png')
             )
           ORDER BY post_date DESC
       ");
   
       foreach($posts as $post) :
         setup_postdata($post);
       ?>
       <div>
         <span class="slider-text">
           <h3><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" rel="bookmark" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php echo slidertitle(get_the_title());?></a></h3>
         </span>
         <div class="slider-image">
           <img src="<?php echo wp_get_attachment_url($attachment->ID); ?>" alt="" />
         </div>
       </div>
       <?php
       endforeach;
       wp_reset_query();
       ?>
       ```
   
 *  [MichaelH](https://wordpress.org/support/users/michaelh/)
 * (@michaelh)
 * [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exclude-posts-without-attachments-from-query/#post-1358284)
 * Pointing to a somewhat related hackers discussion:
    [http://lists.automattic.com/pipermail/wp-hackers/2010-January/029995.html](http://lists.automattic.com/pipermail/wp-hackers/2010-January/029995.html)
 *  Thread Starter [GhostPool](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ghostpool/)
 * (@ghostpool)
 * [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exclude-posts-without-attachments-from-query/#post-1358314)
 * kz,
 * This looks really promising, it skips the posts with no images as I wanted.
 * Few issues though:
 * 1) I can’t seem to get the images to display. The image URLs are being generated
   by <?php echo wp_get_attachment_url($attachment->ID); ?>.
 * 2) How do I integrate a meta_value/meta_key filter?
 * 3) Sticky posts no longer seem to show at the top of the loop.
 *  Thread Starter [GhostPool](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ghostpool/)
 * (@ghostpool)
 * [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exclude-posts-without-attachments-from-query/#post-1358338)
 * Right, I’ve sorted issue 2), I’m still working on 1) and 3) though. 🙂
 *  [kz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kz/)
 * (@kz)
 * [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exclude-posts-without-attachments-from-query/#post-1358345)
 * 1)Use
    `<?php echo wp_get_attachment_image($attachment->ID); ?>` or `<img src
   ="<?php echo wp_get_attachment_image_src()($attachment->ID); ?>" alt="" />` instead
   of `<img src="<?php echo wp_get_attachment_url($attachment->ID); ?>" alt="" /
   >`
 *  [kz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kz/)
 * (@kz)
 * [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exclude-posts-without-attachments-from-query/#post-1358347)
 * 3)Prepend sticky only loop.
 *     ```
       $sticky=get_option('sticky_posts');
       query_posts('p=' . $sticky[0]);
       /* do stuff */
       wp_reset_query();
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [GhostPool](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ghostpool/)
 * (@ghostpool)
 * [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exclude-posts-without-attachments-from-query/#post-1358359)
 * Thanks for all the help kz.
 * Unfortunately neither of those alternatives display the images. I don’t think
   the $attachment->ID is being parsed. Does the post ID need to be called somewhere–
   so it knows what attachment IDs to pull?
 * Where would I insert this relative to the other code? Does this _only_ show sticky
   posts, because I want to show sticky posts at the top and then normal posts below
   just like in the main loop on the index page.
 *     ```
       $sticky=get_option('sticky_posts');
       query_posts('p=' . $sticky[0]);
       /* do stuff */
       wp_reset_query();
       ```
   
 *  [kz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kz/)
 * (@kz)
 * [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exclude-posts-without-attachments-from-query/#post-1358365)
 *     ```
       <?php
       // sticky section
       $sticky=get_option('sticky_posts');
       query_posts('p=' . $sticky[0]);
         /* do stuff */
       wp_reset_query();
       // main section
       global $wpdb;
       $posts = $wpdb->get_results
       ("
         SELECT *
         FROM $wpdb->posts
         WHERE
           post_status = 'publish'
           AND
             ID IN (
       	SELECT DISTINCT post_parent
       	FROM $wpdb->posts
       	WHERE
       	  post_parent > 0
       	AND
       	  post_type = 'attachment'
       	AND
       	  post_mime_type IN ('image/jpeg', 'image/png')
             )
           ORDER BY post_date DESC
       ");
   
       foreach($posts as $post) :
         setup_postdata($post);
       ?>
       <div>
         <span class="slider-text">
           <h3><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" rel="bookmark" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php echo slidertitle(get_the_title());?></a></h3>
         </span>
         <div class="slider-image">
           <?php
           $images = get_children(array(
             'post_parent' => get_the_id(),
             'post_type' => 'attachment',
             'post_mime_type' => 'image',
             'orderby' => 'ID',
             'order' => 'ASC'
           ));
           $ids = array_keys($images);
           echo wp_get_attachment_image($ids[0]);
           ?>
         </div>
       </div>
       <?php
       endforeach;
       wp_reset_query();
       ?>
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [GhostPool](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ghostpool/)
 * (@ghostpool)
 * [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exclude-posts-without-attachments-from-query/#post-1358396)
 * Great stuff, the images are now working.
 * With the sticky posts I need them to be part of the same loop because I only 
   want a maximum of 4 posts displayed and I’m calling the loop in a slider.
 *  [nagooooyen](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nagooooyen/)
 * (@nagooooyen)
 * [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exclude-posts-without-attachments-from-query/#post-1358491)
 * Thanks for posting all of this GhostPool & Kz.
    I have been searching for this
   for a few days and I got it to work. So I figure I will recount my experience
   so that it may be searchable for others like me.
 * I was trying to use the code at [this link](http://maymay.net/blog/2008/06/06/arbitrarily-exclude-posts-from-displaying-in-wordpress/)
   to attempt to exclude posts based on a similar set of requirements as GhostPool.
 * That did not work and was a bit bulky in retrospect. I then tried to build a 
   filter that would alter the query in a similar manner as what is described above.
   That is: excluding posts based whether the image attachment was available and
   if not skipping it while maintaining the same number in my post count. It didn’t
   turn out too well…
 * I found this via a google search for ‘excluding posts without attachments’. This
   code works! Thank you!
 * If people are having trouble figuring out where the wpdb… is supposed to go (
   because it doesn’t look like the common if,while statements), [here](http://blue-anvil.com/archives/wordpress-development-techniques-1-running-custom-queries-using-the-wpdb-class/)
   is a resource that helped me out a lot.
 * NOTE: for further control over the # of posts displayed add ‘ LIMIT #; ‘ after‘
   ORDER BY post_date DESC ‘
 * Cheers.

Viewing 12 replies - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

The topic ‘Exclude Posts Without Attachments From Query’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 12 replies
 * 4 participants
 * Last reply from: [nagooooyen](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nagooooyen/)
 * Last activity: [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exclude-posts-without-attachments-from-query/#post-1358491)
 * Status: not resolved

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