Title: Running the loop inside a PHP function
Last modified: August 20, 2016

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# Running the loop inside a PHP function

 *  Resolved [ixwa](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ixwa/)
 * (@ixwa)
 * [14 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/running-the-loop-inside-a-php-function/)
 * I’ve seen various questions asked in this vein but nothing definitively about
   just having the loop accessible from a function. I have a very good reason to
   want the loop in a function–essentially as a lookup from a posted form. Simple.
 * This is what I have:
 *     ```
       global $post;
       global $the_query;
   
       function myFunction(){
   
       $args = array(
       	'category_name' => 'my-category-name',
       	'orderby' => 'title',
       	'order' => 'ASC',
       	'posts_per_page' => '-1'
       );
   
       $the_query = new WP_Query( $args );
   
       	//Show posts
       	if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {
   
       		while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post();
       		$myPosts .= get_post_meta($post->ID, 'mycustomfieldname', true);
       		endwhile;
   
       	}
   
       return $myPosts;
       }
       ```
   
 * This is before I’ve even added any vars to the function call; all I get right
   now is one line of all the titles of each record (seemingly concatenated) and
   then a bunch of empty lines.
 * Do I have a glaring syntax error or am I going about the function all wrong?

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  [SpankMarvin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/spankmarvin/)
 * (@spankmarvin)
 * [14 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/running-the-loop-inside-a-php-function/#post-2130850)
 * I think you need to bring your global variables inside the function.
 *  [SpankMarvin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/spankmarvin/)
 * (@spankmarvin)
 * [14 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/running-the-loop-inside-a-php-function/#post-2130851)
 * $the_query is also not a valid global variable. Try $wp_query instead. That said,
   unless you are trying to override the default query, there’s no reason to bring
   in the global variables at all.
 * J
 *  Thread Starter [ixwa](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ixwa/)
 * (@ixwa)
 * [14 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/running-the-loop-inside-a-php-function/#post-2130930)
 * OK, thanks. Here’s what I learned…although I still have one remaining issue, 
   see below. Hopefully this helps someone.
 * My $wp_query was originally called $the_query…not sure why (I think I had copied
   it), but I changed this to use “wp”. $post must be global WITHIN the function.
   Not necessary to make $wp_query global.
 * BUT.
 * the_title() does not appear to work inside the loop. All it does is print out
   every post title in a single line, without spaces, and then proceeds to complete
   the loop normally (without titles). I have no idea why; everything else in the
   loop works. I tried instead referencing the post title using $post->name but 
   this didn’t work.
 * Any ideas? Any other way to reference the title of a post inside a loop?
 *  Thread Starter [ixwa](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ixwa/)
 * (@ixwa)
 * [14 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/running-the-loop-inside-a-php-function/#post-2130940)
 * Solved. The answer is to use the_title(”,”,false) in this loop as the_title()
   by itself just spits out all post titles at once, for some reason.
 * FYI: get_the_title() did not work in this function loop.
 * For those wanting to understand the setup: I’m running this function in a Page
   that calls the posts from a specific category (so yes, in some experiments I 
   was getting the Page’s title, not the individual Post titles).

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘Running the loop inside a PHP function’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [function](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/function/)
 * [global](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/global/)
 * [php function](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/php-function/)
 * [post](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/post/)
 * [wp_query](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/wp_query/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 4 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [ixwa](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ixwa/)
 * Last activity: [14 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/running-the-loop-inside-a-php-function/#post-2130940)
 * Status: resolved

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