Post not found when filtered by category ID

Question

On my home page I am trying to filter by a category type and limit it to one post; but I keep getting "no posts found". Here is my following code:

<?php query_posts('cat=34&showposts=1'); ?>
<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

Answer 1

Use post_per_page instead. Like this:

query_posts( 'cat=34&posts_per_page=5' );

Read more about the query on: WordPress Codex