Not duplicating $post->ID leaves empty space.

Question

My home page has a section at the top that displays a featured post from a time period if it has been set, otherwise it displays the most commented post of a time period, or it just displays the most recent post if none of the above are true.

I then have two more loops on the page which display the 6 most recents posts (3 each).

I am using the following code to avoid duplicate posts being displayed.

<?php 

    $do_not_duplicate = $post->ID; 

    if( $post->ID == $do_not_duplicate ) continue;

?>

This does the job of avoiding duplicate posts by skipping over the post that matches the ID, however it leaves a blank space that makes the homepage look odd. Is there a way to display the next most recent post that isn't that ID, rather than skipping over it entirely?

<div class="grid_8 main-content">

                    <div class="grid_12 alpha omega">

                    <?php 

                    // Fetch from the 'featured' category

                    $args = array(                
                        'posts_per_page' => 1,                    
                        'category_name'  => 'featured',
                        'date_query'     => array( 'after' => '1 day ago' )
                    );

                    $the_query = new WP_Query( $args );

                    // If no featured post is found fetch the most commented

                    if ( 0 === $the_query->found_posts ) {  

                    $args = array(                
                            'posts_per_page' => 1,                    
                            'orderby'        => 'comment_count',
                            'date_query'     => array( 'after' => '1 day ago' )
                        );

                    $the_query = new WP_Query( $args );

                    }

                    // If no most commented posts are available fetch the most recent

                    if ( 0 === $the_query->found_posts ) {

                    $args = array(                
                            'posts_per_page' => 1,                    
                            'orderby'        => 'most_recent'
                        );

                    $the_query = new WP_Query( $args );

                    }


                    ?>

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

                    <?php $do_not_duplicate = $post->ID; ?>

                        <a href="<?php the_permalink();?>"><h1 class="main-heading"><?php the_title(); ?></h1></a>
                        <p class="meta">Published on <?php the_date(); ?> by <a href="<?php echo the_permalink();?>"><?php the_author(); ?></a><a href="<?php the_permalink();?>"> <?php comments_number(); ?></a></p>

                        <?php the_excerpt(); ?>

                        <hr>

                    <?php 

                    endwhile; 

                    wp_reset_postdata();

                    else: 

                    _e('No posts found');

                    endif; ?>

                    </div>

                    <?php 

                    $args = array(
                    'posts_per_page' => 3,
                    'orderby' => 'most_recent'
                    );

                    $the_query = new WP_Query( $args );

                    ?>

                    <div class="recent_posts grid_6 alpha">

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

                    <?php if( $post->ID == $do_not_duplicate ) continue; ?>

                        <a href="<?php the_permalink();?>"><h2><?php the_title(); ?></h2></a>
                        <p class="meta">Published on <?php the_date(); ?> by <a href="<?php echo the_permalink();?>"><?php the_author(); ?></p></a><a href="<?php the_permalink();?>"> <?php comments_number(); ?></a></p>
                        <?php the_excerpt(); ?>

                        <hr>

                    <?php endwhile; else: ?>

                    <?php endif; ?>



                    <?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?>



                    </div>

                    <?php 

                    $exclude = $most_recent;


                    $args = array(
                    'posts_per_page' => 3,
                    'orderby' => 'most_recent',
                    'offset'  => 3
                    );

                    $the_query = new WP_Query( $args );

                    ?>

                    <div class="grid_6 alpha">

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

                    <?php if( $post->ID == $do_not_duplicate ) continue; ?>

                        <a href="<?php the_permalink();?>"><h2><?php the_title(); ?></h2></a>
                        <p class="meta">Published on <?php the_date(); ?> by <a href="<?php echo the_permalink();?>"><?php the_author(); ?></p></a><a href="<?php the_permalink();?>"> <?php comments_number(); ?></a></p>
                        <?php the_excerpt(); ?>

                        <hr>

                    <?php endwhile; else: ?>

                    <?php endif; ?>

                    <?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

                    </div>

Answer 1

I don't think your code does what you think, as it is only ever set to a single post from one of your loops. You description doesn't really match that logic.

To prevent duplicates you need to accumulate an array of IDs with each Loop.

$do_not_duplicate[] = $post->ID; 

I think the space you are seeing is the result of your echoing markup even though you loop may be empty. To avoid that, exclude your $do_not_duplicate values in the query itself and only print markup if there are posts to print.

The first is done with the post__not_in argument. The latter is done by putting your "wrapper" div inside the have_posts() check. And it helps to have readable code formatting. For example:

if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) { ?>
  <div class="grid_6 alpha"><?php
    while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : 
      $the_query->the_post(); 
      $do_not_duplicate[] = $post->ID; ?>
      <a href="<?php the_permalink();?>"><h2><?php the_title(); ?></h2></a>
      <p class="meta">Published on <?php the_date(); ?> by <a href="<?php echo the_permalink();?>"><?php the_author(); ?></p></a><a href="<?php the_permalink();?>"> <?php comments_number(); ?></a></p>
      <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
      <hr><?php
    } ?>
  </div><?php
} 

Note: You were using a bare have_posts() in the if condition, which assumes $wp_query not the query you created. That could contribute to your problem.

I also notice that you have a date query. That should be an array of arrays. That is, this:

'date_query'     => array(array( 'after' => '1 day ago' ))

Instead of this:

'date_query'     => array( 'after' => '1 day ago' )