Title: Fetch Random Posts
Last modified: August 19, 2016

---

# Fetch Random Posts

 *  Resolved [rooseveltrp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rooseveltrp/)
 * (@rooseveltrp)
 * [17 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fetch-random-posts/)
 * Hello again,
    My code below basically grabs posts from a specified category and
   the amount I wish to limit it to.
 * But I want to grab a certain amount of random posts from any of my categories
   as long as they are not private.
 * Is there any built in function to do that?
 *     ```
       <?php $recent = new WP_Query("cat=1&showposts=3"); while($recent->have_posts()) : $recent->the_post();?>
       <?php if( get_post_meta($post->ID, "hpbottom", true) ): ?>
       <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><img style="float:left;margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;" src="<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, "hpbottom", true); ?>" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" /></a>
       <?php else: ?>
       <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><img style="float:left;margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;"  src="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/images/thumbnail.png" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" /></a>
       <?php endif; ?>
       <b><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></a></b>
       <?php the_content_limit(350, "[Read more]"); ?>
   
       <div style="border-bottom:1px dotted #2255AA; margin-bottom:10px; padding:0px 0px 10px 0px; clear:both;"></div>
   
       <?php endwhile; ?>
       ```
   

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  Thread Starter [rooseveltrp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rooseveltrp/)
 * (@rooseveltrp)
 * [17 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fetch-random-posts/#post-844567)
 * After searching with the tag I found my solution. Here’s how it works
 *     ```
       <?php
   
       $rand_posts = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT * FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_status = 'publish' AND post_type='post' ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 4");
   
       foreach($rand_posts as $post)
       {
       	setup_postdata($post);
       ?>
   
       				<?php if( get_post_meta($post->ID, "hpbottom", true) ): ?>
       				    <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><img style="float:left;margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;" src="<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, "hpbottom", true); ?>" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" /></a>
       				<?php else: ?>
       				   	<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><img style="float:left;margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;"  src="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/images/thumbnail.png" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" /></a>
       				<?php endif; ?>
       				<b><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></a></b>
       				<?php the_content_limit(350, "[Read more]"); ?>
   
       				<div style="border-bottom:1px dotted #2255AA; margin-bottom:10px; padding:0px 0px 10px 0px; clear:both;"></div>
   
       <?php
   
       }
   
       ?>
       ```
   
 *  [@mercime](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mercime/)
 * (@mercime)
 * [17 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fetch-random-posts/#post-844568)
 * Good for you. You’re learning fast, kudos!

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

The topic ‘Fetch Random Posts’ is closed to new replies.

 * 2 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [@mercime](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mercime/)
 * Last activity: [17 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fetch-random-posts/#post-844568)
 * Status: resolved

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