Title: Remove sorting by ID
Last modified: August 21, 2016

---

# Remove sorting by ID

 *  [willee](https://wordpress.org/support/users/willee/)
 * (@willee)
 * [12 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/remove-sorting-by-id/)
 * I have search filters which filter information from 1 of 2 tables based on filter
   choices. Those results are then put into an array. After that they are passed
   into `$args`. Here is what `$args` looks like:
 *     ```
       $args=array(
           'post_status'       => 'publish',
           'post_type'         => 'products',
           'tax_query'         => array(
               array(
                   'taxonomy'  => 'product_categories',
                   'terms'     => explode(',', $groups_separated),
                   'field'     => 'slug',
               )
           ),
           'posts_per_page'	=> 30
       );
       ```
   
 * My `query_posts` call with `$args` in my loop:
    `$keep = query_posts($args);`
 * The order that `$groups_separated` is in when it goes into `$args` is the order
   that I would like the information to be displayed in. However when the loop is
   ran, the results appear to be displaying by `ID` example: `WP_Post Object ( [
   ID] => 158`.
 * I have thought of two ways to possibly get my results to display in order, but
   not sure how to implement them. The first way would be to just have my loop display
   the results by order that they are passed into `$args`. The second, I think far
   more difficult, would be to join tables (my table from the search filter with`
   wp_query`) then add a sort. I am not sure how to go about either and there may
   be a better way, just looking for ideas or some guidance with either way I mentioned.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [12 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/remove-sorting-by-id/#post-4219370)
 * This is a common problem without a clear solution because the specifics vary 
   endlessly. I see 3 basic approaches. On low traffic/low content sites it probably
   doesn’t matter which approach is used.
 * The easiest, and most inefficient, is to use PHP to make multiple small queries
   in the desired order to build the content.
 * The second is more efficient, but trickier to code. You go ahead and get all 
   the needed data in one big query, then use PHP’s `usort()` or some other algorithm
   to rearrange the data as needed before running the loop. `usort()` appears to
   be a bubble sort. It’s not too hard to code the sort callback, but bubble sorts
   are not very efficient. In addition, using PHP to do the sorting means the usual
   pagination used through WP_Query and it’s variants is not available.
 * The most efficient, but most difficult to code, unless you’re a mySQL wizard 
   is let mySQL do the sorting. All the data needed to do the sort of course needs
   to be in the database, and you need to determine the best way to join the various
   tables so the data can be sorted properly. In addition, the arguments accepted
   by `query_posts()` and other WP_Query variants are rarely sophisticated enough
   to manage anything but the most basic ordering.
 * In order to send the proper mySQL query, you could simply use `$wpdb->query()`
   to send the actual query string. But doing so again means you cannot make use
   of the WP_Query pagination. Fortunately, you can use one or more of several filters
   to tweak the query generated by `query_posts()`, though it does involve more 
   coding complexity.
 * If your query results in pages of data, it’s best to go ahead and work with the
   filters so that pagination works seamlessly. If the results are relatively small
   and your site traffic load isn’t huge, go with whatever appeals to you.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

The topic ‘Remove sorting by ID’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [query_posts](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/query_posts/)
 * [sorting](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/sorting/)

 * In: [Hacks](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/plugins-and-hacks/hacks/)
 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * Last activity: [12 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/remove-sorting-by-id/#post-4219370)
 * Status: not resolved

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