How to order by multiple fields using standard query_posts?

Question

In our archive.php we show all the items which match our selected category. This works absolutely fine.

Then we improved it by adding (just before the loop) a sort and upping the posts per page from the default 10, like so:

$posts = query_posts($query_string . '&orderby=title&order=asc&posts_per_page=99'); 

This works even better.

Now, however we want to sort by more than one field, say menu_order then title. I don't see a way to do this using this query_posts / querystring syntax we have in place. Code samples all involve firing up a new WP_Query, losing track of the query_string. What's the solution?

Answer 1

If you're altering the main query, always use pre_get_posts to alter query parameters before the query is run and before the template is loaded. This will be the most efficient and will not break pagination. As of v4, orderby accepts an array of arguments, which gives you the ability to have different order for each if necessary:

function my_get_posts( $query ){
    if( !is_admin() && $query->is_category() && $query->is_main_query() ){
        $query->set( 'posts_per_page', -1 ); // show all posts
        $query->set( 'orderby', array('menu_order' => 'ASC', 'title' => 'ASC') );
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'my_get_posts' );

Answer 2

There is ability to sort by more than one column. See here.

$args = array(
    'posts_per_page' => 99,
    'orderby'   => 'menu_order title',
    'order'     => 'ASC',
);

$query = new WP_Query( $args );
// do your stuff here...

wp_reset_postdata();

Check out standard loop and why you should use wp_reset_postdata.