How to Create a Shortcode in WordPress to Count All Posts with Some Categories Excluded

If you’re looking for a way to count all posts on your WordPress site while excluding posts in specific categories, a shortcode is a great solution. By creating a shortcode, you can easily display the post count wherever you want on your site, such as in a page, a post or widget and navigation menu.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to create a shortcode in WordPress to count all posts with some categories excluded.

Step 1: Create and Register the Shortcode Function

To create the shortcode function, you can add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or a plugin file:

function exclude_category_count_func( $atts ) {
	$atts = shortcode_atts(
		array(
			'exclude_cats' => '',
		),
		$atts,
		'exclude_category_count'
	);

	$exclude_cats = explode( ',', $atts['exclude_cats'] );

	$args = array(
		'category__not_in' => $exclude_cats,
		'posts_per_page'   => -1,
		'fields'           => 'ids',
	);

	$post_ids   = get_posts( $args );
	$post_count = count( $post_ids );

	return $post_count;
}
add_shortcode( 'exclude_category_count', 'exclude_category_count_func' );
Code language: PHP (php)

This function uses the shortcode_atts() function to set default values for the shortcode attribute exclude_cats. It then converts the attribute to an array using explode(). The get_posts() function is used to retrieve posts that don’t belong to the excluded categories, and count() is used to get the number of posts. Finally, the add_shortcode() function is used to register a new shortcode named exclude_category_count. The second parameter is the name of the function that will be used to generate the shortcode output.

Step 2: Use the Shortcode

Once you have registered the shortcode, you can use it on any post or page in your WordPress site. Here’s an example usage of the shortcode:

[exclude_category_count exclude_cats="1,2"]
Code language: PHP (php)

This shortcode will count all posts in the WordPress site except those belonging to the categories with IDs 1 and 2.

That’s it! Creating a shortcode to count all posts with some categories excluded is a powerful technique to have in your WordPress toolbox. By following the steps in this tutorial, you can create a shortcode that meets your specific requirements and easily display the post count wherever you want on your site.