Wp query orderby 'title' doesn't work

Question

I would like to order a list of post title alphabetically. I am using this specific query

// WP_Query arguments
$args = array(
    'category_name'     => 'reportage',
    'order'             => 'ASC',
    'orderby'           => 'title',
);

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

// The Loop
if ($query->have_posts()) {
    while ($query->have_posts()) {
        $query->the_post();
        echo '<ul><li style="float:left; width:100%;"><a href="'.get_the_permalink().'" style="color:#D34D3D">'.get_the_title().'</a></li></ul>';
    }
} else {
    // no posts found
}

// Restore original Post Data
wp_reset_postdata();

The query worked perfect until a certain point of the list where the order seems to be messed up.

Why the order doesn't work correctly for all the post title?

Answer 1

I came across the same problem and could not figure it out. Eventually found the problem when I took a look at the custom post type entries in the database and noticed that the results that were out of order had values set in the menu_order column. After a bit of digging I realised that it was the Post Types Order plugin that was set to auto and 'injecting' an additional parameter to the orderby parameter. I understand you can turn off the auto function in the plugin settings but I opted to do it via the query parameters:

$loop = new WP_Query(
    array(
    'post_type' => 'my-custom-post-type', 
    'order' => 'ASC', 
    'orderby' => 'title',
    'ignore_custom_sort' => true
    )  
); 

And BINGO! the results came back in the correct order. Hope this helps someone.

Answer 2

Try adding 'suppress_filters' => true to your query args. Maybe you have a plugin that modifies the queries.

You could also check if the posts out of order (the first one) is a sticky post. Sticky posts by default skip the order queue.

You can disable this by adding 'ignore_sticky_posts' => true to your query args.

Answer 3

Problem is $args, do this:

$args = array(
    'category_name'     => 'reportage',
    'orderby' => array( 'title' => 'ASC' )
);

You can also order by multiple parameters, like:

$args = array(
    'category_name'     => 'reportage',
    'orderby' => array( 'menu_order' => 'ASC', 'title' => 'ASC', 'post_date' => 'DESC' ),
);