Custom taxonomy query showing more than 4 posts

Question

I have a custom taxonomy query setup that shows posts from the same post type and share the same taxonomy term. The markup looks as follows:

        <?php  
        $terms = wp_get_post_terms( $post->ID, 'products-category' );
        if($terms){
          // post has course_type terms attached
          $course_terms = array();
          foreach ($terms as $term){
           $course_terms[] = $term->slug;
          }

         $original_query = $wp_query;
         $wp_query = null;
         $wp_query = new WP_Query( array(
         'post_type' => 'regularproducts',
         'tax_query' => array(
          array(
         'taxonomy' => 'products-category',
         'field' => 'slug',
         'terms' => $course_terms, //the taxonomy terms I'd like to dynamically query
         'posts_per_page' => '4'
            ),
          ),
          'orderby' => 'title',
          'order' => 'ASC'
          ) );

        if ( have_posts() ): ?>
...etc

But despite me using 'posts_per_page' => '4' it is still showing all the posts that are related and not just 4. I can't figure out why, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

This is why code indentation is so important! Your posts_per_page argument is actually part of your tax_query:

'post_type' => 'regularproducts',
'tax_query' => array(
    array(
        'taxonomy' => 'products-category',
        'field' => 'slug',
        'terms' => $course_terms, //the taxonomy terms I'd like to dynamically query
        'posts_per_page' => '4'
    ),
),
'orderby' => 'title',

Instead, you should have:

$wp_query = new WP_Query(
    array(
        'posts_per_page' => '4',
        'post_type' => 'regularproducts',
        'tax_query' => array(
            array(
                'taxonomy' => 'products-category',
                'field' => 'slug',
                'terms' => $course_terms, //the taxonomy terms I'd like to dynamically query
            ),
        ),
        'orderby' => 'title',
        'order' => 'ASC',
    )
);