Exclude category

Question

I want to exclude a category from showing in a function, but cannot figure out how to do it for my specific code as below. I want to make it so that any post that is in the "featured" category, does not display - but all other posts do.

$args = array( 'posts_per_page' => 4, 'category_name' => 'featured');                  
$last_5_posts_query = new WP_Query( $args );
while($last_5_posts_query->have_posts()) : 

I just cannot figure out where or how to add the exclude operator, which i assume is by adding a - somewhere. Thanks.

Answer 1

To exclude a category, you need to know its ID. You can then exclude it like this (please not the minus before the ID):

$args = array( 'posts_per_page' => 4, 'cat' => -the_category_id_to_put_in);  

The WP Query class reference has more information if you need it: http://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query#Category_Parameters