Php continue not working if not empty? - php

Question

I am having a loop and that loop has only sticky posts in it. So my logic works like this:
"If Sticky Posts are "EMPTY" break the loop". That code works as expected and looks like this:
<?php //we will get "Sticky Posts" only with this loop and exlude Featured Category
$category = get_cat_ID('Featured');
$col = 1; //Let's create first column
$sticky = get_option( 'sticky_posts' );
$args = array(
/* Add whatever you need here - see http://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query */
'paged' => $paged,
'category__not_in' => array($category),
'post__in' => $sticky,
'ignore_sticky_posts' => 1
);
$temp = $wp_query;
$wp_query = null;
$wp_query = new WP_Query($args);
/*Below is IMPORTANT PART*/
if($wp_query->have_posts()):?><?php while ( $wp_query->have_posts() ) :
$wp_query->the_post();if(empty($sticky))break;?>
<div <?php post_class('col'.$col); ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
<?php if ($col == 1) echo '<div class="row">';//If column 1 create first row ?>
<?php if ($col == 2) echo '<div class="row2">';//If column 2 create second row ?>
<h3 class="mytitle"><?php the_title(); ?></h3>
<div class="entry">
<?php if ( has_post_thumbnail() ):?>
<div class="featured_img">
<?php
the_post_thumbnail();
echo '<div class="featured_caption">' . get_post(get_post_thumbnail_id())->post_excerpt . '</div>';
?>
</div><!--/featured_img-->
<?php endif; ?>
<?php // let's enable more link on pages...
global $more;
$more = 0;
?>
<?php the_content(__('Read more','override')); ?>
<div class="clear"></div>
<div class="custom_fields"><?php the_meta(); ?></div><br/>
<p class="postmetadata">
<?php _e('Filed under:','override'); ?> <?php the_category(', ') ?> <?php _e('by','override'); ?> <?php the_author(); ?><br/><?php the_tags(__('Tags:','override'), ', ', '<br />'); ?>
<?php _e('Posted on: ','override'); ?><?php the_time(get_option('date_format')); ?><br/>
<?php if ( comments_open() ) {
comments_popup_link(__('No Comments »','override'), __('1 Comment »','override'), __('% Comments »','override'));}
else {
_e('Comments are disabled!','override');
}
?>
<?php edit_post_link(__(' Edit','override'), __(' |','override'), ''); ?>
</p>
</div><!--/entry-->
</div><!--/post_class-->
<?php /*Enable Two Column Layout*/
if($col==1) {
$col=2;
echo "</div>";
}
else if($col==2) {
$col=1;
echo "</div>";
}
endwhile; ?>
<?php endif; ?><!--END if THE LOOP (Sticky)-->
<?php
$wp_query = null;
$wp_query = $temp;
wp_reset_query();
?>
Now before this working code I tried a different logic that goes like this:
"If NOT EMPTY continue the loop" so now everything in my code stays the same except:if($wp_query->have_posts()):?><?php while ( $wp_query->have_posts() ) :
$wp_query->the_post();if(empty($sticky))break;?> so now that code becomes:if($wp_query->have_posts()):?><?php while ( $wp_query->have_posts() ) :
$wp_query->the_post();if(!empty($sticky))continue;?>
Now this is where i got confused because if(!empty($sticky))continue; part does not work as expected because my loop CONTINUES (returns other posts) even if there are no "Stickies". I thought that loop will STOP if there are no stickies but it is not the case. My var_dump($sticky)
shows this if there are sticky postsarray(1) { [0]=> int(214) } and shows this if there are no stickiesarray(0) { }.
My question is: Why the loop continues to return other posts if using if(!empty($sticky))continue; (i thought it will return ONLY "Stickies" if they exist and return NOTHING if they are not here. )
Thank you!!

Answer 1

First off, let me poit out that your logic doesn't quite agree with your code :).
From what I understand from your code, you want to iterate all posts WP_Query() returned, but only render sticky ones. Your if is inside the wile loop, so you have to check if the current post is sticky or not. However, if(empty($sticky)) doesn't do that. It checks if there are any sticky posts at all. A way to check the current post would be if(is_sticky(the_ID())).
Now, concerning continue:
From the php manual:
continue is used within looping structures to skip the rest of the
current loop iteration and continue execution at the condition
evaluation and then the beginning of the next iteration.
So as you can see, continue doesn't stop the loop, but rather attempts to start the next iteration ignoring the rest of the code for the current step. Which is what you want, if the current post is not sticky, in other words if(!is_sticky(the_ID())).
However, I think you don't really need any check at all, since you already specified that you want WP_Query() to fetch only stickies ('post__in' => $sticky).
See also: this WordPress Answers topic.

Answer 2

I don't know well the wordpress code, but in that code, the $sticky variable is never updated in the while loop. So maybe you have to add $sticky = get_option( 'sticky_posts' ); right before the if condition.