Override the default number of posts to show for a single loop?

Question

Is is possible to override the set # of blog posts to show per page (as defined under Reading Settings in the WordPress admin)? I want to make it so a custom loop that I am using will show an unlimited number.

Answer 1

The argument that controls how many posts are shown in the query is posts_per_page

<?php query_posts( array( 
                         'post_type' => 'post',
                         'posts_per_page' => -1 ) 
      ); 
?>

Also to note is that there is a bug in the 3.0 branch which prevents the -1 integer from displaying all posts. It is fixed in 3.1 but a workaround would be to use a very high number instead of -1

see:

http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/15150

Answer 2

Sure, change the query by adding

<?php query_posts('post_type=post&numberposts=-1'); ?>

Answer 3

Eileen is right but it's better to use arguments as an array <?php query_posts( array( 'post_type' => 'post', 'numberposts' => -1 ) ); ?>

Answer 4

I had the same issue.. I decided to add a custom variable and then catch that variable during pre_get_posts to set the post_per_page query_var:

function custom_query_vars_filter($vars) {
  $vars[] = 'post_per_page_override';
  return $vars;
}
add_filter( 'query_vars', 'custom_query_vars_filter' );


add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'rc_modify_query_get_design_projects' );
function rc_modify_query_get_design_projects( $query ) {

if( $query->query_vars['post_per_page_override'] == '3') {
        $query->set('posts_per_page', '3');
    }
}

Then I went even further and make it get the exact amount you want to display in the custom query var:

function custom_query_vars_filter($vars) {
  $vars[] = 'post_per_page_override';
  return $vars;
}
add_filter( 'query_vars', 'custom_query_vars_filter' );


add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'rc_modify_query_get_design_projects' );
function rc_modify_query_get_design_projects( $query ) {

if( $query->query_vars['post_per_page_override']) {
        $customPPPlimit = $query->query_vars['post_per_page_override'];
        $query->set('posts_per_page', $customPPPlimit);
    }
}

Worked for me..