Title: Shortcode – Regex – SQL problem
Last modified: August 21, 2016

---

# Shortcode – Regex – SQL problem

 *  [mentallybroken](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mentallybroken/)
 * (@mentallybroken)
 * [12 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/shortcode-regex-sql-problem/)
 * I am creating a shortcode that displays a list of custom post type based on letter
   parameter. like [affiliate-mall letter=’a’] will display all letter A.
 * Problem is , how can I set the default/no parameter ex: [affiliate-mall], to 
   query any entries having title that starts with a number or any symbol. I know
   this is done using regex but I don’t have an idea how to implement this. any 
   hints?THanks! Code below
 *     ```
       function custom_shortcode( $atts ) {
   
                 // Attributes
                 extract( shortcode_atts(
                   array(
                     'letter' => ''
                   ), $atts )
   
             );
   
           $finalArgs =  array (
                   'posts_per_page'=> 200,
                   'order' => 'ASC',
                   'post_type' => 'Affiliate'
               );
              global $wpdb;
               // Create a new instance
               $searchAffiliate = new WP_Query( $finalArgs );
   
               $mypostids = $wpdb->get_col("select ID from $wpdb->posts where post_title LIKE '".$letter."%' ");
   
               $args = array(
                   'post__in'=> $mypostids,
                   'post_type'=>'Affiliate',
                   'orderby'=>'title',
                   'order'=>'asc'
               );
   
               $res = new WP_Query($args);
                $count = 0;
   
               while( $res->have_posts() ) : $res->the_post();
   
                   global $post;
                   $count++;
                  $client_logo = get_post_meta( $post->ID, '_cmb_affiliate_logo_image', true );
                          $affiliate_link = esc_url(get_post_meta( $post->ID, '_cmb_affiliate_link', true ));
                          if($count % 4 === 0){
                                $output .=  '<div class="one-fourth" style="padding-left:0;"><a href="' . $affiliate_link . '" target="_blank"><img src="' . $client_logo . '" /></a></div>'; 
   
                          }else{
                               $output .=  '<div class="one-fourth"><a href="' . $affiliate_link . '" target="_blank"><img src="' . $client_logo . '" /></a></div>'; 
   
                          }
   
               endwhile;
                if(!$output){
                 $finalOutput = "No Entries for Letter $letter found";
               }else{
                 $finalOutput = '<div style="clear:both;float:left;width:100%;">' .  $output . '</div>';
               }
   
                wp_reset_query();
                return $finalOutput;
           }
           add_shortcode( 'affiliate-mall', 'custom_shortcode' );
           ?>
       ```
   

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 * 0 replies
 * 1 participant
 * Last reply from: [mentallybroken](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mentallybroken/)
 * Last activity: [12 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/shortcode-regex-sql-problem/)
 * Status: not resolved

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