How to Display Posts from One Category or Another in WordPress Loop

Learn how to customize your `WordPress` loop to display posts from either category 1 or category 2 using the `category__in` argument effectively.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/63776644/ asked by the user 'Jay' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/1619909/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/63777094/ provided by the user 'Raf' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/3575982/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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How to Display Posts from One Category or Another in WordPress Loop

If you're working with WordPress and trying to display posts from certain categories in a loop, you might run into some common challenges. In particular, you may find that your current setup is only showing posts that belong to both categories instead of those in either one. This can be a point of frustration for many developers and content creators looking to customize their site’s display functionality.

The Problem

You may be trying to create a WordPress loop that shows posts from either category 1 or category 2; however, your current code ends up filtering out posts and displaying only those that meet both conditions. Let's illustrate this with an example of the loop code you might be using:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

As shown above, this code defines the parameters for the loop to query posts from both categories simultaneously. Unfortunately, this does not yield the desired outcome of showcasing posts from either category.

The Solution

To achieve your goal of displaying posts from either category, you can utilize the category__in argument. This allows you to specify multiple category IDs and return posts that are associated with any of them. Here’s how you can adjust your code:

Step 1: Update Your Arguments

Replace the categories used in your $args array with the category__in argument, which takes an array of category IDs. Here’s the updated code:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 2: Complete Loop Code

Your complete loop code will look like this:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Benefits of This Approach

Flexibility: Easily add or remove categories without having to rewrite multiple lines of code.

Efficiency: The query will run faster as it only checks for any of the listed categories instead of both.

User-Friendly: Displaying relevant posts from either category improves user engagement.

Conclusion

By replacing your current category filtering method with the category__in argument in your WordPress loop, you can effectively display posts from either category 1 or category 2. This simple change not only streamlines your code but also enhances how users interact with your content. Keep tweaking and optimizing your loops, and your WordPress site will shine!

If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to leave a comment below!