WordPress.org

1. phobic
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   Hi there - I'm trying to create an index page which shows 5 posts - one long at the top, then three excerpts, then a long one at the bottom, but I'm having trouble trying to manipulate The Loop - top one is easy, simple get first most recent post. But then I can't figure out how to do a loop to retrieve the 2nd, 3rd and 4th most recent posts.

   Any help greatly appreciated!

2. Mark / t31os
   Moderator
   Posted 2 years ago #

   You can do that all in one loop.. you only need a counter, to determine where you are in the loop..

   Example snippet of code:
   

   // If the query has posts
   if( have_posts() ) :
   
   // Create a counter variable
   $counter = 0;
   
   // While there are posts, aka The Loop
   while( have_posts() ) : the_post();
   
   	// Increment the counter in each iteration of a post, by +1
   	$counter++;
   
   	// other regular loop stuff
   
   	// If the counter is 1 or 5, then show full content
   	if( $counter == 1 || $counter == 5 ) {
   		the_content();
   	}
   	// Else show an excerpt
   	else {
   		the_excerpt();
   	}
   
   // End loop
   endwhile;
   
   // End if have posts
   endif;

   Alternatively you can check some of the previous threads asking similar questions.

   http://wordpress.org/search/first+post+full+second+excerpt?forums=1

   The code involved is usually the same, so don't worry too much about the search terms i used above.

3. phobic
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   many thanks for the response t31os_, the only problem is that the PHP code and CSS is completely different for each different section - some include the title, some don't, some show images and custom fields, some don't. I'm fairly certain I need to begin with three separate loops, though I might be wrong..

4. Mark / t31os
   Moderator
   Posted 2 years ago #

   No you don't need extra loops, you just conditionalise everything in the same way i've done it in the example above..

   Here's an example of conditions used to control the elements.
   

   <?php if( $counter == 3 ) { ?>
   
   <div class="mydiv-first">
     <h3><?php the_title() ?><h3>
     <?php the_content() ?>
   </div>
   
   <?php } elseif( $counter == 5 ) { ?>
   
   <div class="mydiv-somethingelse">
     <div class="someother">
       <?php the_title() ?>
     </div>
     <?php the_excerpt() ?>
   </div>
   
   <?php }  ?>

   That could be extended to do any number of things.

   Hope that helps..

5. phobic
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   hrm.. that would certainly be much cleaner than separate loops. many thanks t31os_, I'll give this a try!

Topic Closed

This topic has been closed to new replies.