Post title is duplicating if have_posts - php

Question

I am trying to add some post titles from a custom post category. I currently have it printing the correct amount of <li> but unfortunately it is the same name. You will see I narrow it down using meta, so I am getting 5 results all the same name.
I do not pretend to be a pro at this, so I am humbly asking for any help that the community may have.
Thanks In advance.
I have tried doing a foreach and also doing the if have_posts. both have yielded the same result.
$page_title = get_the_title();
$args = array(
'orderby' => 'title',
'post_type' => 'person',
'post_status' => 'publish',
'meta_key' => 'division',
'meta_value' => 'Singles'
);
$string = '';
$query = new WP_Query( $args );
if( $query->have_posts() ):
$string .= '<ul>';
while( $query->have_posts() ):
$query->the_post();
$string .= '<li>' . get_the_title() . '</li>';
endwhile;
$string .= '</ul>';
echo $string;
wp_reset_postdata();
else :
// No, we don't have any posts, so maybe we display a nice message
echo "<p class='no-posts'>" . __( "Sorry, there are no posts at this time." ) . "</p>";
endif;
So what we are going for is looking for how many posts exist in "Singles" (in my case that is 5) and printing the post title for each one in an <li>. Currently it prints 1 of the 5, 5 times.

Answer 1

get_the_title() has the following implementation
function get_the_title( $post = 0 ) {
$post = get_post( $post );
$title = isset( $post->post_title ) ? $post->post_title : '';
$id = isset( $post->ID ) ? $post->ID : 0;
if ( ! is_admin() ) {
if ( ! empty( $post->post_password ) ) {
/**
* Filters the text prepended to the post title for protected posts.
*
* The filter is only applied on the front end.
*
* #since 2.8.0
*
* #param string $prepend Text displayed before the post title.
* Default 'Protected: %s'.
* #param WP_Post $post Current post object.
*/
$protected_title_format = apply_filters( 'protected_title_format', __( 'Protected: %s' ), $post );
$title = sprintf( $protected_title_format, $title );
} elseif ( isset( $post->post_status ) && 'private' == $post->post_status ) {
/**
* Filters the text prepended to the post title of private posts.
*
* The filter is only applied on the front end.
*
* #since 2.8.0
*
* #param string $prepend Text displayed before the post title.
* Default 'Private: %s'.
* #param WP_Post $post Current post object.
*/
$private_title_format = apply_filters( 'private_title_format', __( 'Private: %s' ), $post );
$title = sprintf( $private_title_format, $title );
}
}
/**
* Filters the post title.
*
* #since 0.71
*
* #param string $title The post title.
* #param int $id The post ID.
*/
return apply_filters( 'the_title', $title, $id );
}
As you can see you can pass a post to it and then it will get its title. Since you didn't pass a post to it, it didn't get a title for you. Suggestion:
$page_title = get_the_title();
$args = array(
'orderby' => 'title',
'post_type' => 'person',
'post_status' => 'publish',
'meta_key' => 'division',
'meta_value' => 'Singles'
);
$string = '';
$query = new WP_Query( $args );
if( $query->have_posts() ):
$string .= '<ul>';
while( $query->have_posts() ):
$string .= '<li>' . get_the_title($query->the_post()) . '</li>';
endwhile;
$string .= '</ul>';
echo $string;
wp_reset_postdata();
else :
// No, we don't have any posts, so maybe we display a nice message
echo "<p class='no-posts'>" . __( "Sorry, there are no posts at this time." ) . "</p>";
endif;