Latest posts by category — how to exclude current post?

Question

This is the code I use to display the 4 most recent posts under the category the current post belongs to (right below the current post):

<?php if (is_single()) : ?>
    <?php
        $count = 0;
        $aahan_category = get_the_category();
        $aahan_category = get_term_by( 'name', $aahan_category[0]->cat_name, 'category');
        $some_featured_posts = new WP_Query(array('category_name' => $aahan_category->slug, 'posts_per_page' => 4));
        while ($some_featured_posts->have_posts()):
            $some_featured_posts->the_post();
            $count++;
            $no_margin = (2 == $count || 4 == $count) ? ' no-margin-right' : '';
    ?>

    <div class="latest-category-posts-image-t<?php echo $no_margin; ?>">
    <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>">
        <?php the_post_thumbnail( 'thumbnail' ); ?>
        <h1 class="latest-category-posts-text"><?php the_title(); ?></h1>
    </a>
    </div>

    <?php
        endwhile;
        wp_reset_postdata();
    ?>
<?php endif; ?>

In case it matters, I added this code in content-single.php. The code basically shows the featured images (post-thumbnail) of the 4 most recent posts under the category the current post belongs to, along with their titles.

Now the question is, if the current post is among the n most recent posts (n = 4 as per my code), how do I exclude it from the listing?

PS: Although it goes without saying, it would be great if you can show how the code I use could be optimized.

Answer 1

You can use the post__not_in parameter of WP_Query to exclude an array of post IDs from the query.

get_the_category() returns an array of term objects, so the get_term_by is redundant. Also is_single() will always be true in content-single.php (not strictly speaking true but only not so if you are interferring with the template selection).

(Finally, in your example, if you have at most 4 posts, then (2==$count || 4==$count) is equivalent to ($count%2 == 0))

<?php
    $count = 0;
    $cat = get_the_category();
    if( $cat ){

        $featured_posts = new WP_Query(array( 
              'post__not_in'=>array(get_the_ID()),
              'category_name' => $cat->slug, 
              'posts_per_page' => 4
         ));

         while ( $featured_posts->have_posts() ): $featured_posts->the_post();
                 $count++;
                 $no_margin = ($count%2 == 0) ? ' no-margin-right' : '';
             ?>
                 <div class="latest-category-posts-image-t<?php echo $no_margin; ?>">
                 <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>">
                        <?php the_post_thumbnail( 'thumbnail' ); ?>
                        <h1 class="latest-category-posts-text"><?php the_title(); ?></h1>
                 </a>
                </div>
            <?php
         endwhile;
         wp_reset_postdata();
    }
?>