Display one latest post from multiple categories

Question

This should be very easy, however for some reason I can't find a working snippet anywhere on the web.. I basically need to display one latest post from 6 categories (can be changed to 7,8, etc etc) using one loop. this should be the output: (just a demonstration)

<div class=box>
  <h2>name of category 1</h2>
  <a href="">The title and the permalink of the latest one post from category 1</a>
</div>

<div class=box>
  <h2>name of category 2</h2>
  <a href="">The title and the permalink of the latest one post from category 2</a>
</div>

<div class=box>
  <h2>name of category 3</h2>
  <a href="">The title and the permalink of the latest one post from category 3</a>
</div>

For now I am using 6 loops using simple query:

<?php query_posts('showposts=1&cat=8'); ?>
 <?php if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
    //Title, links etc comes her....
<?php endwhile; ?>

But that makes me create 6 loops and I would like to do it easier using one loop and a possibility to control how many and which catefories I want to display.

Thanks A lot

Answer 1

What about in_category() function? You can build a conditional for those categories and then use a $var to show just one post, filtering previously those cats on the query. It would be something like that:

<?php query_posts( 'posts_per_page=-1&cat=1,2,3,4,5,6' ); $var = 0; ?>

<?php if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>

    <?php if ( in_category(1) && $var == 0 ) : ?>

        //Title, links etc comes here....
        <?php $var++; ?>

    <?php elseif ( in_category(2) && $var == 1 ): ?>

        //Title, links etc comes here....
        <?php $var++; ?>

    <?php elseif ( in_category(3) && $var == 2 ): ?>

        //Title, links etc comes here....
        <?php $var++; ?>

    <?php elseif ( in_category(4) && $var == 3 ): ?>

        //Title, links etc comes here....
        <?php $var++; ?>

    <?php elseif ( in_category(5) && $var == 4 ): ?>

        //Title, links etc comes here....
        <?php $var++; ?>

    <?php elseif ( in_category(6) && $var == 5 ): ?>

        //Title, links etc comes here....
        <?php $var++; ?>

    <?php endif; ?>

<?php endwhile; endif; ?>

<?php wp_reset_query(); ?>

You need to call all the post with posts_per_page=-1, but I still think that 1 query is better than 6. I know that is not the best option, but it works... I'm working to get a simpler code. Hope it helps.

Answer 2

My Answer : Here i want recent post from three categories Business Data,Real Estate,Investing Ans is like this

$realestate_args = array( 
'showposts' => '1', 
'category_name' => 'Business Data,Real Estate,Investing', 
'post_type' => 'post', 
'post_status' => 'publish', 
'orderby' => 'post_date', 
'order' => 'DESC');

Else if you have cat id's Ans:

$realestate_args = array( 
'showposts' => '1', 
'cat' => '112,113,115', 
'post_type' => 'post', 
'post_status' => 'publish', 
'orderby' => 'post_date', 
'order' => 'DESC');