Modify function to print tags/categories/exclude tags/categories/ number of posts

Question

I'm trying to get a piece of code I can use sitewide to print lists of posts (like people commonly do on their homepage to show their categories' most recent). With help from others over past years, I've gotten a certain distance, but not all the way, which is what I'm trying now.

You can see this piece goes in "functions.php" I can make it get categories OR tags, offset them. I would like to add to this though. I would like to be able to select a category OR tag, but then exclude posts that also have another tag/cat. For example, I want to print a list of "grizzly-bear" tag posts, but exclude any posts tagged "alaska" as well as (if possible) any post from the "blog" category. I'd also prefer if the function was changed so that I could enter the number of posts the same way I do the offset (because the way it is now, I have to make a new function for each number of posts I want).

Right now I print it with:

<?php my_custom_loop(NULL, 'blogs', 0); ?>

Can anyone assist with how to add that stuff? Particularly with changing this code so that the number of posts, kind of so it'd be printable with something like:

<?php my_custom_loop(NULL, 'blogs', 0, numberofposts, excludecategoryorNULLL, excludetagorNULL); ?>

Function as it is now:

// Universal category - tag - offset code function
function my_custom_loop($category, $tag, $offset) {
        $args=array(
          // showposts has been replaced, use 'posts_per_page' instead
          // 'showposts'        =>10,
          'posts_per_page'      => 10,
          // this has been replaced, use 'ignore_sticky_posts'
          // 'caller_get_posts' => 1,
          'ignore_sticky_posts' => true,
        );

        if ($category) {
          $args['cat'] = $category;
        }

        if ($tag) {
          $args['tag'] = $tag;
        }

        if ($offset) {
          $args['offset'] = $offset;
        }

        $my_query = new WP_Query($args);
        // ... rest of function to output loop 

if( $my_query->have_posts() ) {
            while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>
             <li>
              <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" >
                <?php the_title(); ?>
              </a>
             </li>
            <?php
            endwhile;
        } //if ($my_query)

        wp_reset_query();  // Restore global post data stomped by the_post().   
 };

Answer 1

I wonder if you mean this kind of a loop wrapper:

wpse_257857_loop(
        $args   = [ 'post_type' => 'page', 'posts_per_page' => 2 ],
        $before = 'template-parts/wpse-before',
        $loop   = 'template-parts/wpse-loop',
        $after  = 'template-parts/wpse-after'
);

where we define it in the functions.php file, in the current theme directory:

/**
 * Simple loop wrapper
 */

function wpse_257857_loop( $args, $before, $loop, $after ) 
{
    $defaults = [
        'posts_per_page'      => 10,
        'ignore_sticky_posts' => true,
    ];

    $args = wp_parse_args( $args, $defaults );

    $query = new WP_Query( $args );

    if( $query->have_posts() )
    {
        get_template_part( $before );
        while( $query->have_posts() )
        {
            $query->the_post();
            get_template_part( $loop );
        }
        get_template_part( $after );

        wp_reset_postdata();
    }
}

Note that we don't need wp_reset_query(), instead we use wp_reset_postdata().

We have to define the template parts, in the current theme directory, that we load with get_template_part().

Here's an example:

• /template-parts/wpse-before.php contains:

  <div class="wpse-loop">
      <ul>
  

• /template-parts/wpse-after.php contains:

      </ul>
  </div>
  

• /template-parts/wpse-loop.php contains:

   <li>
      <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" >
          <?php the_title(); ?>
      </a>
   </li>
  

Hope you can adjust it to your needs!