orderby parameter not working in custom query

Question

I have a really strange issue for a site I'm updating...

All I want to do, is have it so that the posts come in descending order instead of random. I have the following code, but when you change it from "rand" to "desc" it just defaults to pull in the posts in "asc" order. I have no idea why. In addition, if you change "orderby" to "order" it just defaults to ascending order... I've done a search through the theme to see where that's happening but there's no place at all where that's listed... can someone please steer me in the right direction?

 <?php

 $args= array(
 'post_type' => 'waiting-families',
'orderby' => 'rand'

);

 // The Query
 $the_query = new WP_Query( $args );



 // The Loop
 if (have_posts() ):

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

<div <?php post_class() ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">

    <h3><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3>
        <?php if ( has_post_thumbnail()) { ?>
            <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php echo get_the_post_thumbnail($id,      'thumbnail', array('class' => 'alignleft','style' => 'width: 150px;height: 150px;padding: 3px;     background: #f0f0f0; border: 1px solid #65C8C6;')); ?></a>
        <?php } ?>
        <?php my_excerpt(55); ?>

        <p class="postmetadata">
            <?php edit_post_link('Edit', '', ' | '); ?>
        </p>
   </div>

  <?php endwhile; 
else: echo '<p style="text-align: center; font-size:20px; font-weight: 700; color:         #65c8c6;">More Families to Come.</p>';
 endif;
   ?>


   <?php // Reset Post Data
  wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

Answer 1

orderby does not accept the values ASC or DESC. These are acceptable values for the parameter order. Changing 'orderby' => 'rand' to 'order' => 'ASC' should be sufficient and should by rule work

As already pointed out,

if (have_posts() ):

should be

if ($the_query->have_posts() ): 

Apart from that little discrepancy, you code have to work

It case this does not solve your problem, look in your functions.php for any instance of pre_get_posts. The reason for my thinking is, pre_get_posts does not only alter the main query, but also all instances of WP_Query. You have to include the conditional tag is_main_query() to target the main query only, otherwise pre_get_posts will interfere with instances of WP_Query

For additional resources:

• WP_Query

• pre_get_posts