Stop duplicate posts

Question

I have three loops I want to stop them from displaying the same posts in each one.

any help would be greatly appreciated

<?php
$i;
$args = array( 'numberposts' => 8);
$posts= get_posts( $args );
if ($posts) {
    foreach ( $posts as $i => $post )
         {
        setup_postdata($post);

    }
}
?>
<div class="item" id="<?php echo $i; ?>" >
<?php
$a = 0;
foreach( $posts as $i => $post ) :
if ($a == 4) { break; }
?>
            <div class="col-md-6 nopadding view view-ninth" style="">

                            <?php the_post_thumbnail('large'); ?>
                            <div class="content">
                                                    <h2><?php the_title(); ;?></h2>
                            <p><?php $excerpt = get_the_excerpt(); echo string_limit_words($excerpt,15) . '...'; ?></p>
                            <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" class="info">Read More >></a>
                                                    </div>
                            </div>
 <?php $a++; endforeach;  ?>
</div><!-- end item -->


<div class="item" id="<?php echo $i; ?>" >
<?php
$a = 0;
foreach( $posts as $i => $post ) :
if ($a == 4) { break; }
?>
            <div class="col-md-6 nopadding view view-ninth" style="">

                            <?php the_post_thumbnail('large'); ?>
                            <div class="content">
                                                    <h2><?php the_title(); ;?></h2>
                            <p><?php $excerpt = get_the_excerpt(); echo string_limit_words($excerpt,15) . '...'; ?></p>
                            <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" class="info">Read More >></a>
                                                    </div>
                            </div>
 <?php $a++; endforeach;  ?>
</div> 


<div class="item" id="<?php echo $i+1; ?>" >
<?php
$a = 0;
foreach( $posts as $i => $post ) :
if ($a == 4) { break; }
?>
            <div class="col-md-6 nopadding view view-ninth" style="">

                            <?php the_post_thumbnail('large'); ?>
                            <div class="content">
                                                    <h2><?php the_title(); ;?></h2>
                            <p><?php $excerpt = get_the_excerpt(); echo string_limit_words($excerpt,15) . '...'; ?></p>
                            <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" class="info">Read More >></a>
                                                    </div>
                            </div>
 <?php $a++; endforeach;  ?>
</div>

Answer 1

    <?php $args = array( 'numberposts' => 8);
    $posts= get_posts( $args );


   $i=0;
   foreach($posts as $key=>$value) {

    if($i==0) { echo "<div class=\"item\" id=\"".$key."\" >"; } ?>

                <div class="col-md-6 nopadding view view-ninth" style="">

                                <?php echo get_the_post_thumbnail($value->ID, 'large'); ?>
                                <div class="content">
                                <h2><?php echo $value->post_title; ?></h2>
                                <p><?php echo string_limit_words($value->post_excerpt,15) . '...'; ?></p>
                                <a href="<?php echo get_permalink($value->ID); ?>" class="info">Read More >></a>
                                 </div>
                </div>
     <?php $i++; if($i==4) { $i=0; echo "</div><div class=\"item\" id=\"<?php echo $key; ?>\" >"; } } ?>

     </div>

This is my fix in the end.

Answer 2

You can use WP_Query to create your custom loop, and then use the offset parameter to skip the posts in the previous loop. You are going to run 3 loops from one query, so all you need to do to rerun the query is to use rewind_posts() after each loop to reset the loop

Here is an example code which you can modify to suite your exact needs. This is just a very basic loop

<?php
$args = array( 'posts_per_page' => 4);
$my_query= new WP_Query( $args ); ?>
<ul>
    <?php
    while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post();
        ?>
        <li><?php the_title(); ?></li>
        <?php
    endwhile; 
    ?>
</ul>
<?php

$my_query->rewind_posts();

?> 
<ul>
    <?php
    $my_query->query('posts_per_page=4&offset=4');
    while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post();
        ?>
        <li><?php the_title(); ?></li>
        <?php
    endwhile;
    ?>
</ul>
<?php

$my_query->rewind_posts();

?> 
<ul>
    <?php
    $my_query->query('posts_per_page=4&offset=8');
    while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post();
        ?>
        <li><?php the_title(); ?></li>
        <?php
    endwhile;
    ?>
</ul>
<?php
wp_reset_postdata();
?>