Question

I need to divide the blog into three columns. For that, I wrote:

<?php $i = 0; ?>
<div class="onethird">
<?php if (have_posts()) : while(have_posts()) : $i++; if(($i % 3) == 0) : $wp_query->next_post(); else : the_post(); ?>
    <?php get_template_part( 'content', 'category' ); ?>
        <?php endif; endwhile; endif;  ?>
    </div>

    <?php $i = 0; rewind_posts(); ?>

<div class="onethird">
<?php if (have_posts()) : while(have_posts()) : $i++; if(($i % 3) == 1) : $wp_query->next_post(); else : the_post(); ?>
    <?php get_template_part( 'content', 'category' ); ?>
        <?php endif; endwhile; endif;  ?>
    </div>

<?php $i = 0; rewind_posts(); ?>

<div class="onethird last">
<?php if (have_posts()) : while(have_posts()) : $i++; if(($i % 3) == 2) : $wp_query->next_post(); else : the_post(); ?>
    <?php get_template_part( 'content', 'category' ); ?>
<?php endif; endwhile; endif; ?>
</div>

I’m certain it’s very bad code, but it was the best I could come up with. Then, I noticed the duplicate post problems. Again, after lot of googling, wrong:

<?php $i = 0; $dupe = array(); ?>
<div class="onethird">
<?php if (have_posts()) : while(have_posts()) : $i++; if( (($i % 3) == 0) && (!in_array($post->ID, $dupe)) ) : $wp_query->next_post(); else : the_post(); ?>
<?php $dupe[] = $post->ID; echo $post->ID ?>
    <?php get_template_part( 'content', 'category' ); ?>
<?php endif; endwhile; endif;  ?>
</div>

<?php $i = 0; rewind_posts(); ?>

<div class="onethird">
<?php if (have_posts()) : while(have_posts()) : $i++; if( (($i % 3) == 1) && (!in_array($post->ID, $dupe)) ) : $wp_query->next_post(); else : the_post(); ?>
<?php $dupe[] = $post->ID; echo $post->ID ?>
    <?php get_template_part( 'content', 'category' ); ?>
<?php endif; endwhile; endif;  ?>
</div>

<?php $i = 0; rewind_posts(); ?>

<div class="onethird last">
<?php if (have_posts()) : while(have_posts()) : $i++; if( (($i % 3) == 2) && (!in_array($post->ID, $dupe)) ) : $wp_query->next_post(); else : the_post(); ?>
<?php $dupe[] = $post->ID; echo $post->ID ?>
    <?php get_template_part( 'content', 'category' ); ?>
<?php endif; endwhile; endif; ?>
</div>

Now it just disregards the counter, and the in_array, and display all posts in all three columns.

If anyone has a better solution for displaying posts in three columns, that would be welcome too!

Answer 1

Three loops seem a bit complicated for what you are trying to achieve.

I would get the total number of posts – wp_count_posts() – and divide it by 3 (round up) to get the number of posts per column.

Then you only have to loop once and you add </div><div class='onethird'> whenever the remainder of your counter $i divided by the number of posts per column is 0.

Something like:

<div class="onethird">
<?php
$a_third = ceil(wp_count_posts() / 3);
$i = 0;
if (have_posts()) :
  while(have_posts()) :

    $i++;

    the_post();

    if( ($i % $a_third) === 0 ) :
      echo "</div><div class='onethird'>";
    endif;

  endwhile;
endif;
?>
</div>