Separate WordPress news listings by category

To display the latest 4 post titles as links on your homepage, limited to posts where the parent category is “Category name,” you’ll need to use WP_Query and specify the parent category for filtering, as shown below.

✅ Method: Retrieve Posts from the Parent Category “Category name”

Step 1: Get the ID of the Parent Category “Category name”

First, obtain the ID of the parent category “Category namel” (e.g., let’s assume the ID is 10).

*You can find the actual ID on the “Posts > Categories” screen’s link URL, or by using functions like get_category_by_slug().

term_id;
?>

Step 2: Get Posts Including Child Categories of the Parent Category “Category name”

term_id;

$args = array(
    'posts_per_page' => 4,
    'post_type' => 'post',
    'orderby' => 'date',
    'order' => 'DESC',
    'category__in' => get_term_children($parent_id, 'category'),
);

$query = new WP_Query($args);

if ($query->have_posts()) : ?>
    

    have_posts()) : $query->the_post(); ?>
        

    
    
    

    
No articles found.

🔍 Key Points

• get_term_children($parent_id, 'category') retrieves an array of child category IDs for “Category name.”
• Passing this to category__in fetches only articles within the child categories of “Category name.”
• If you also want to include posts directly assigned to the “Category name” category itself, you can merge them by using $category_ids = array_merge([$parent_id], get_term_children($parent_id, 'category')).

Example: Including Parent “Category name” + Its Child Categories

term_id], get_term_children($parent->term_id, 'category'));

$query = new WP_Query([
    'post_type' => 'post',
    'posts_per_page' => 4,
    'orderby' => 'date',
    'order' => 'DESC',
    'category__in' => $category_ids,
]);