How to get 4 Posts after the 5 most recent ones

Question

Well, I think the question might be a bit confusing. But well, I want to get the recent 4 posts, ignoring the first five recent posts. So in short the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth - most recent posts.

Answer 1

Simple.

WordPress provides a function called get_posts() that lets you get posts in any order. Basically, get_posts() will retrieve the 5 most recent posts by default.

To get 4 posts, ignoring the 5 most recent, you'd set the numberposts and offset parameters - offset tells the function how many posts to skip.

$args = array(
    'numberposts' => 4,
    'offset'      => 5,
    'orderby'     => 'post_date',
    'order'       => 'DESC',
    'post_type'   => 'post',
    'post_status' => 'publish'
);

$posts = get_posts( $args );

Now you have an array of posts the 4 latest posts (ignoring the 5 most recent), ordered by date.

Answer 2

You can use the offset parameter - either on pre_get_posts hook (see this post) for the 'main Loop':

add_action('pre_get_posts','wpse50761_alter_query');
function wpse50761_alter_query($query){

      if( $query->is_main_query() ){
        //Do something to main query
        $query->set('offset',5);
      }
}

Or for subsequent secondary loops:

 //Using get_posts
 $my_offset_posts = get_posts(array('offset'=>5));

 //Using WP_Query object
 $my_offset_query = new WP_Query( array('offset'=> 5) );

(Of course other argument can be included in the argument array)