How to Create a Random List of Child Pages

Question

I have a site that has Parent and Child pages. I want to be able to show a list of the child pages, listed in Random order. In addition I want to limit the number of child pages shown.

I have found a solution to Listing the pages randomly, however, I need to 1. limit the the number of Child Pages returned
2. Add the Parent Page at the top of the list.

Example:
Parent Page
Child Page
Child Page
Child Page
The Code that I am using is:

add_shortcode( 'wpb_childpages', 'wpb_list_child_pages' );
function wpb_list_child_pages() { 
    global $post; 

    if ( is_page() && $post->post_parent ) {
        $childpages = wp_list_pages( 'sort_column=rand&title_li=&child_of=' .  $post->post_parent . '&echo=0' );
    } else {
        $childpages = wp_list_pages( 'sort_column=rand&title_li=&child_of=' .  $post->ID . '&echo=0' );
    }

    if ( $childpages ) {    
        $string = '<ul>' . $childpages . '</ul>';
    }

    return $string;
}

Answer 1

You can make all sorts of selections using wp_query. In your case try this:

$query = new WP_Query (array( 
  'post_parent' => 93    // get the children of page with ID 93
  'post_count' => 7      // get 7 child pages
  'orderby' => 'rand'    // order the results randomly
   ));

Once you have this, you can loop through $query in the usual way.