Get first post from wp_query

Question

How can I get the first post from a WP_Query result?

$connected = new WP_Query( array(
// Arguments
));

// This doesn't work..
echo $connected[0]->post_name;

Answer 1

If you poke through WP_Query the set of queried posts is saved into posts property and current post gets assigned to post one (each time loop iterates).

So you could do $connected->posts[0] if you need to just fetch that, but it might be more convenient to do $connected->the_post(); then $connected->post if you need to skip first one and process the rest in normal loop.

Answer 2

You may use a code like this:

if ($the_query->have_posts()) {
  $first_post = $the_query->posts[0];
  echo "1st post title\t:"$first_post->post_title;
}