Title: Custom select query
Last modified: August 19, 2016

---

# Custom select query

 *  Resolved [amp343](https://wordpress.org/support/users/amp343/)
 * (@amp343)
 * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-select-query-1/)
 * Is there any way to run a custom select query that will select a post based on
   its publish status and category?
 * The normal query_posts() isn’t doing the trick, and I’m not sure how to navigate
   the database to achieve this; any help is appreciated!

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

 *  [MichaelH](https://wordpress.org/support/users/michaelh/)
 * (@michaelh)
 * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-select-query-1/#post-1368089)
 * This query gets published posts in category 3. Change post_status to values as
   listed in [query_posts()](http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/query_posts):
 *     ```
       <?php
       $args=array(
         'cat' => 3,
         'post_type' => 'post',
         'post_status' => 'publish',
         'posts_per_page' => -1,
         'caller_get_posts'=> 1
       );
       $my_query = null;
       $my_query = new WP_Query($args);
       if( $my_query->have_posts() ) {
         echo 'List of Posts';
         while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>
           <p><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></p>
           <?php
         endwhile;
       }
       wp_reset_query();  // Restore global post data stomped by the_post().
       ?>
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [amp343](https://wordpress.org/support/users/amp343/)
 * (@amp343)
 * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-select-query-1/#post-1368114)
 * Is it possible to use this to retrieve a post based on a combination of slug 
   and category?
 * I know you should be able to get the post by slug alone, but the database I’m
   working with has some duplicate entries for slugs, so it returns more than one
   post. I was thinking that by querying the post slug and category id, it would
   narrow down the selection since that would return one result only. However, query_posts
   breaks when I try to do this…
 *  Thread Starter [amp343](https://wordpress.org/support/users/amp343/)
 * (@amp343)
 * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-select-query-1/#post-1368115)
 * … Or could you get the post ID from its title and category, then just use query_posts
   with that unique ID?
 *  Thread Starter [amp343](https://wordpress.org/support/users/amp343/)
 * (@amp343)
 * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-select-query-1/#post-1368133)
 * Here’s what I came up with so far… not sure if this is really legit / going to
   work in the end, but it seems to be fore the time being!
 *     ```
       $querystr ="
       SELECT wposts.*
       FROM $wpdb->posts wposts
       	LEFT JOIN $wpdb->term_relationships tr ON (wposts.ID = tr.object_id)
       	LEFT JOIN $wpdb->term_taxonomy tt ON (tr.term_taxonomy_id = tt.term_taxonomy_id)
       	LEFT JOIN $wpdb->terms t ON (tt.term_id = t.term_id)
   
       	WHERE wposts.post_name = '$postname_var'
       	AND t.term_id = $this_cat_ID_var
       	"
   
       ;
       ```
   
 * (postname and cat id having already been determined and stored as vars prior 
   to running the query)
 *  [MichaelH](https://wordpress.org/support/users/michaelh/)
 * (@michaelh)
 * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-select-query-1/#post-1368134)
 * You would make the $args be:
 *     ```
       $args=array(
         'name' => 'post-slug',
         'cat' => 3,
         'post_type' => 'post',
         'post_status' => 'publish',
         'posts_per_page' => -1,
         'caller_get_posts'=> 1
       );
       ```
   
 * Don’t forget to use that query_posts link I gave you above.
 *  Thread Starter [amp343](https://wordpress.org/support/users/amp343/)
 * (@amp343)
 * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-select-query-1/#post-1368137)
 * Hi Michael,
 * Thanks so much for the help, but for some reason query_posts wasn’t liking those
   arguments. It would always return the posts by name (slug), seemingly disregarding
   the ‘cat’ parameter. Since there were multiple posts for a given slug, this would
   return multiple posts rather than just the desired one. Also, showposts and posts_per_page
   seemed to be disregarded as well.
 * Could this be because slug is supposed to be unique, so its category shouldn’t
   matter (as far as the function is concerned?)
 * Anyway, I posted the hack/workaround that seems to be working for the moment 
   above…
 * I don’t have much experience playing with databases, so what I have there is 
   pieced together from other stuff that I’ve read online.
 *  [MichaelH](https://wordpress.org/support/users/michaelh/)
 * (@michaelh)
 * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-select-query-1/#post-1368140)
 * Good point about the combination of name and cat arguments–here’s the SQL that
   generated–totally ignored that category:
 *     ```
       SELECT   wp_posts.*
       FROM wp_posts
       WHERE 1=1
       AND wp_posts.post_name = 'post-slug'
       AND wp_posts.post_type = 'post'
       AND (wp_posts.post_status = 'publish')
       ORDER BY wp_posts.post_date DESC
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [amp343](https://wordpress.org/support/users/amp343/)
 * (@amp343)
 * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-select-query-1/#post-1368142)
 * Good call, that makes sense now. Is there an easy way to see the SQL that the
   query functions generate? That might make this easier for future reference.
 * I figured I would run in to some issues with the duplicate post slugs — that 
   apparently being one of them — but I’m hoping the query I have pulling the post
   now will work reliably.
 * I hope trying to keep this format up with duplicate post slugs doesn’t end up
   being a foolish endeavor; I’ve only really come across one other answer about
   how to do it in WP: Don’t!
 * Thanks again for the help.
 *  [MichaelH](https://wordpress.org/support/users/michaelh/)
 * (@michaelh)
 * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-select-query-1/#post-1368148)
 * Don’t remember where I found this plugin but it put the SQL as a comment at the
   bottom of a page (right click and view source to see it)
 *     ```
       <?php /*
       Plugin Name: Echo Query
       Version: 0.1
       Description: Prints the posts query in an html comment
       */
   
       //No rights reserved. :-)
   
       function get_query($query) { //set the database query as a global variable
       	global $query_comment;
           $query_comment = $query;
       	return $query;
       }
   
       function echo_query() { //print it into the footer
       	global $query_comment;
       	echo "<!-- {$query_comment} -->";
       }
   
       add_filter('posts_request', 'get_query');
       add_action('wp_footer', 'echo_query');
   
       ?>
       ```
   

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

The topic ‘Custom select query’ is closed to new replies.

 * 9 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [MichaelH](https://wordpress.org/support/users/michaelh/)
 * Last activity: [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-select-query-1/#post-1368148)
 * Status: resolved

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