Show posts in category that match username - php

Question

This is fixed thanks to Alex's answer below.
So this is a bit of a weird one. I am setting up so I have category's with names "cat1, cat2, cat3" etc.
And say I had users called "cat1, cat2, cat3" so they matched the same as the category names.
I am then wanting to somehow only show the posts to the user that relates to their category, so basically if USER: "cat1" is logged in then they could only see the posts in category "cat1" as it matches their username.
I know you can do this to show posts only that the current user logged in has made but this wont work as the way the posts get put into the category complicated to explain.
<?php
// The Query
$args = array(
'post_status'=> '.....'
);
global $user_ID;
get_currentuserinfo();
if($user_ID) {
query_posts( $args,"author=$user_ID" );
}
?>
So if anyone has any insight into only showing posts to a user that matches a category with the same name as the user logged in hopefully they will be kind enough to help out.

Answer 1

It seems like you've started a round-about way of getting this accomplished. Since you have categories already set up with the username, you should just be able to place that in your query
//Get User -> ID -> Cat
global $current_user;
get_currentuserinfo();
$args = array(
category_name => $current_user->ID
); //or use $current_user->display_name if that's how they are set up.
// The Query
$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );
// The Loop
while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post();
//Display your loop how you want
endwhile;
// Reset Post Data
wp_reset_postdata();
EDIT:
did you do var_dump($current_user->ID) to see if it matches the category name? That variable from the object might only contain an ID (like "1" or "178" etc). If that was the case, you'd need something like
$the_cat_name = 'category' . $current_user->ID;
//Append your 'naming structure' to the front of the user ID
Then just replace the array with
$args = array(
category_name => $current_user->ID
);
Alternatively, look at the Current User Functions (here). You may be able to use
$current_user->user_login
instead. You could also just try var_dump($current_user) (after calling global $current_user; get_currentuserinfo();) and see what variable contains the string you need