Paginate Custom Post Types using WP_Query

One of the most common tasks when working with WordPress is to be able to paginate custom post types.

Supposedly, I have a custom post type called Product. Using the WP_Query class, here’s the standard loop implementation without pagination:

$the_query = new WP_Query(array(
  'post_type' => 'product',
  'post_status' => 'publish',
  'orderby' => 'date',
  'order' => 'DESC'
));

if ($the_query->have_posts()) {
  echo '<ul>';
  
  while ($the_query->have_posts()) {
    $the_query->the_post();
    
    echo '<li>' . get_the_title() . '</li>';
  }
  
  echo '</ul>';
  
  wp_reset_postdata();
}

…and here’s the standard loop with pagination:

global $wp_query;

$wp_query = new WP_Query(array(
  'post_type' => 'product',
  'post_status' => 'publish',
  'posts_per_page' => 5,
  'paged' => (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1,
  'orderby' => 'date',
  'order' => 'DESC'
));

if ($wp_query->have_posts()) {
  echo '<ul>';
  
  while ($wp_query->have_posts()) {
    $wp_query->the_post();
    
    echo '<li>' . get_the_title() . '</li>';
  }
  
  echo '</ul>';
  
  wp_reset_postdata();
}

The Process

  1. Declare the $wp_query global variable before the WP_Query instance.
  2. Add the following parameters to the WP_Query instance:
    • 'posts_per_page' => 5, // number of posts per page to display
    • 'paged' => (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1,
  3. Change all occurrences of $the_query to $wp_query.
Written on September 24, 2017