Several loops in sidebar issues

Question

I've created sidebar tabs that display the most recent, popular and random posts. In other words I'm creating several loops in my sidebar. This seems to cause some problems, though. Do I have to reset something or just use a complete different code overall?

The code for the sidebar tabs looks like this:

           <div id="tabvanilla" class="widget">

    <ul class="tabnav">
    <li><a href="#popular"><img src="http://zoomingjapan.com/wp-content/themes/alltuts/images/41.gif" border="0" alt="41" /> Popular</a></li>
    <li><a href="#recent">Recent</a></li>
    <li><a href="#random">Random</a></li>
    </ul>

    <div id="popular" class="tabdiv">
<ul id="popular-comments">

<?php
$pc = new WP_Query('orderby=comment_count&posts_per_page=5'); ?>

<?php while ($pc->have_posts()) : $pc->the_post(); ?>
<li>
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_post_thumbnail(array(50,50)); ?></a>
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>  <?php comments_popup_link('(0)', '(1)', '(%)'); ?>
<p>Posted on <strong><?php the_time('F jS, Y') ?></strong><br />
<span class="sidebar_content"><?php echo excerpt(8); ?></span></p>
</li>

<?php endwhile; ?>
<?php wp_reset_query(); ?> 
</ul>
    </div><!--/popular-->

    <div id="recent" class="tabdiv">
<ul id="recent_posts">
<?php
$rp = new WP_Query('orderby=date&posts_per_page=5'); ?>

<?php while ($rp->have_posts()) : $rp->the_post(); ?>
<li>
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_post_thumbnail(array(50,50)); ?></a>
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>  <?php comments_popup_link('(0)', '(1)', '(%)'); ?>
<p>Posted on <strong><?php the_time('F jS, Y') ?></strong><br />
<span class="sidebar_content"><?php echo excerpt(8); ?></span></p>
</li>

<?php endwhile; ?>
<?php wp_reset_query(); ?> 
</ul>
    </div><!--/recent-->

    <div id="random" class="tabdiv">
<ul id="random_posts">
<?php
$ranp = new WP_Query('orderby=rand&posts_per_page=5'); ?>

<?php while ($ranp->have_posts()) : $ranp->the_post(); ?>
<li>
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_post_thumbnail(array(50,50)); ?></a>
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>  <?php comments_popup_link('(0)', '(1)', '(%)'); ?>
<p>Posted on <strong><?php the_time('F jS, Y') ?></strong><br />
<span class="sidebar_content"><?php echo excerpt(8); ?></span></p>
</li>

<?php endwhile; ?>
<?php wp_reset_query(); ?> 
</ul>
    </div><!--random-->

    </div><!--/widget-->

The current issue is that the first tab "Popular" displays 5 posts as it should, but the other 2 tabs display 6 posts, although I've clearly coded it so that only 5 should be displayed!!!!

My website is here for reference (if you use IE - and I hope you don't - please don't be shocked that apart from the tab above none other is working - there are a lot of issues in IE suddenly (since yesterday) possibly caused by CSS, maybe some HTML error - am working on it currently).

Thanks a lot in advance!

Answer 1

Have you tried calling <?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?> after the ehdwhile; for each custom loop?

EDIT

Next step is to try calling <?php wp_reset_query(); ?> instead of <?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?> after the ehdwhile; for each custom loop.

Note: see here for a nice explanation of the different ways to reset the WordPress loop.

Note 2: problem is caused by sticky post with title 'under construction'