How to use WP_Query() on single.php?

Question

I'm using WP_Query() to pull out a few posts under a specific category "Featured" to display at the bottom of any post.

So I added <?php if (function_exists('getEditorPicks')) getEditorPicks();?> in single.php.

In functions.php, I have

wp_reset_postdata();
    $args = array('cat' => 4176, 'posts_per_page' => 5);
    $query = new WP_Query($args);
    //return $query->query_vars;
    if ($query->post_count>2) {
        while ($query->have_posts()) {
            $query->the_post;
            echo the_title();
        }
    }
    wp_reset_postdata();

However, it takes forever for the page to load now and it simply exhausts memory in the end.

What am I missing here?

Answer 1

$query->the_post;

should be:

$query->the_post();

The first is trying to fetch a property named the_post rather than invoking the function so the post never advances, and your loop is infinite.