query if page has not child

Question

I'm trying to create a page which display a few of sub pages (child pages), however if the page has not child I would like to display a message.

I cannot get a query that allow me to do something like this:

 if (Page has childs) {
    do this
 }
 else {
    display this
 }

Any help?

Thanks in advanced

Answer 1

$args = array(
    'post_status' => 'publish',
    'post_parent' => $post_id
);
$children = get_posts( $args );

if( count( $children ) > 0 ) {
    //has children
} else {
    //does not have children
}

Docs: get_posts()

This should also allow you to have access to the data of the children, should you need it. If you need any additional parameters in $args (a post type, for example), make sure to include those.

Answer 2

What about using something like this (provided you have a way to get the ID of the page you are checking for child pages):

$children = get_pages( array( 'child_of' => $post->ID ) );

However if you want to get just direct descendants, see m0r7if3r's, or this would also work too:

$children = get_pages( array( 'child_of' => $post->ID, 'parent' => 0 ) );

And then check that using count($children) with an if statement like so:

if( count( $children ) > 0 ) {
    // has children (and grandchildren if not using the 'parent' param)
} else {
    // does not have children
}