Nest a while loop in an if else statement in WordPress - php

Question

I have a while loop that gets all pages of a certain category on index.php which is my posts page.
However, I want to change the code below, so if it is the homepage, it does not run this loop but displays some text.
This code the loop works:
<?php
$category = get_category( get_query_var( 'cat' ) );
$cat_id = $category->cat_ID;
$loop = new WP_Query( array(
'post_type' => 'story',
'cat' => $cat_id,
'posts_per_page' => 10,
'orderby' => 'date',
'order' => 'DESC'
) );
while ( $loop->have_posts() ) : $loop->the_post();
?> <?php the_title();?>
endwhile;
?>
In this code, nothing loads on any page except the homepage:
<?php
$category = get_category( get_query_var( 'cat' ) );
$cat_id = $category->cat_ID;
$loop = array(
'post_type' => 'story',
'cat' => $cat_id,
'posts_per_page' => 10,
'orderby' => 'date',
'order' => 'DESC' ,
'paged'=>$paged
);
if ( is_home() ) {
echo 'Welcome!';
} else if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post(); ?>
<h2><?php the_title(); ?></h2>
<?php endwhile; endif; ?>

Answer 1

You need to wrap your query and loop in your is_home() condition
if ( !is_home() ) { // This is not the home page
// Add your query and loop here
$category = get_category( get_query_var( 'cat' ) );
$cat_id = $category->cat_ID;
$loop = new WP_Query( array(
'post_type' => 'story',
'cat' => $cat_id,
'posts_per_page' => 10,
'orderby' => 'date',
'order' => 'DESC'
) );
while ( $loop->have_posts() ) : $loop->the_post();
?> <?php the_title();?>
endwhile;
} else { // This is the homepage
echo 'Some text here';
}

Answer 2

<?php
$category = get_category( get_query_var( 'cat' ) );
$cat_id = $category->cat_ID;
$loop = new WP_Query( array(
'post_type' => 'story',
'cat' => $cat_id,
'posts_per_page' => 10,
'orderby' => 'date',
'order' => 'DESC'
) );
if ( $loop->have_posts() ) : while ( $loop->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post();
if ( is_home() ) {
echo 'Welcome!';
}
else{?>
<h2><a href="<?php echo get_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title();
}
<?php endwhile; endif; ?>