How to retrieve “sticky” post outside the “loop”?

Question

I need to display the "sticky" post in a section that is outside the "loop".

Can someone tell me how to do this?

Answer 1

I am using this query;

<?php
$sticky = get_option( 'sticky_posts' ); // Get all sticky posts
rsort( $sticky ); // Sort the stickies, latest first
$sticky = array_slice( $sticky, 0, 1 ); // Number of stickies to show
query_posts( array( 'post__in' => $sticky, 'caller_get_posts' => 1 ) ); // The query

if (have_posts() ) { while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
    <h2><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>

<?php endwhile;?>
<?php } else { echo ""; }?>

Hope it works for you too.. :)

Answer 2

 $last_sticky_post = get_post(end(get_option('sticky_posts')));
 if(!empty($last_sticky_post)):
   setup_postdata($last_sticky_post);
   the_title(); // standard loop here...
   the_content();
 endif;

(this gets a single post)

use get_posts() with the 'include' => implode(',', get_option('sticky_posts')) argument to get all sticky posts (Martin's solution without array_slice will do the same).