How to limit total number of posts in wp query loop?

Question

I want to show 5 posts per page but limit total number of posts being resulted in a loop.

$args = array(
  'post_type' => 'post',
  'posts_per_page' => 5,
  'paged' => $paged
);

Suppose, I have 100 posts and the above query args will display 5 posts per page and I can see 20 pages. So, how can I limit the total number of posts being resulted so that in my condition it would only show 3 pages? I'm not needing exactly 3 pages to show but wanted to limit the total post like 25 posts, 23 posts. So, if I wanted to limit 12 posts then I can see 5 posts on first page, 5 posts on second page and remaining 2 posts on last page.

Answer 1

You can use the found_posts filter to alter the number of posts WordPress reports finding from a query.

add_filter( 'found_posts', 'wpd_found_posts', 10, 2 );
function wpd_found_posts( $found_posts, $query ) {
    if ( $query->is_home() && $query->is_main_query() ) {
        return 25;
    }
}

Answer 2

Use the post_limits hook with a priority of 2...

function my_posts_limit( $limit, $query ) {
  return 'LIMIT 0, 25';
}
add_filter( 'post_limits', 'my_posts_limit', 10, 2 );

Answer 3

post_limits

/**
 * Limit the main query search results to 25.
 *
 * We only want to filter the limit on the front end of the site, so we use
 * is_admin() to check that we aren't on the admin side.
 *
 * We also only want to filter the main query, so we check that this is it
 * with $query->is_main_query().
 *
 * Finally, we only want to change the limit for searches, so we check that
 * this query is a search with $query->is_search().
 *
 * @see http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Filter_Reference/post_limits
 * 
 * @param string $limit The 'LIMIT' clause for the query.
 * @param object $query The current query object.
 *
 * @return string The filtered LIMIT.
 */
function wpcodex_filter_main_search_post_limits( $limit, $query ) {

    if ( ! is_admin() && $query->is_main_query() && ($query->is_search() || $query->is_home()) ){
        return 'LIMIT 0, 25';
    }

    return $limit;
}
add_filter( 'post_limits', 'wpcodex_filter_main_search_post_limits', 10, 2 );

Answer 4

You can set the post limit in two ways:

1) wp-admin > Settings > Reading

2) By passing the argument query 'numberposts' => 5

Answer 5

Use the 'numberposts' parameter...

$args = array(
'post_type' => 'post',
'numberposts' => 25,
'posts_per_page' => 5,
'paged' => $paged
);

Exemple at the Developer's Codex