How do I get the content of a custom instance of WP_Query?

Question

I've taken a very minimalistic loop, and tried to modify it, so that I can use more then one loop on one page.

The minimalistic loop works fine and gets the content. But my modification to allow it to be re-used fails.

This is the working loop:

<?php

if (have_posts()) : 

?>

<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
    <?php the_content(); ?> 
<?php endwhile; ?>

All good so far. That actually works. But if I want to have more then one loop on a page, I'm forced to work with WP_Query.

So, I modify my loop thus:

<?php

$my_query = new WP_Query() ;

if ($my_query->have_posts()) : 

?>

<?php while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>
    <?php $my_query->the_content(); ?> 
<?php endwhile; ?>

But now I get nothing back at all. I don't get any errors, and php after that loop continues to execute. But I'm not getting any content.

Where am I going wrong? How do I actually get the content?

Answer 1

You have to pass some arguments to new WP_Query or no database request will be sent. Your check …

if ($my_query->have_posts())

… will never evaluate to TRUE, because there are no data.