Im trying to list a maximum of ‘x’ product categories (a multiple of y) with a qty of ‘y’ in each column. ‘x’ decides how many columns are displayed.

What I am trying to do: - If there are less product categories than ‘x’ in the shop then display all. - If there are exactly ‘x’ then display ‘x’. - If there are more than ‘x’ display x-1 and display a “view all categories” link in the last place.

As an example: With 35 product categories. If max product categories=32 and qty per column=8, display 31 product categories in 4 columns and the "view all" link in 32nd place.

The total product categories are constantly changing so I am trying to make the code work dynamically for any amount, without the need to change the code, unless to change 'x' or 'y'.

Here is the basic code that I have been able to make work for me, however the link spills into the next column, rather than last place in the previous column. As a beginner I have exhausted my knowledge of if/else logic and everything else I have tried is messing up the output.

<?php

$args = array(
         'taxonomy'     => 'product_cat',
         'orderby'      => 'name',
         'number'       => 32,   //maximum to list
         'title_li'     => '',
         'show_count'   => 0,    // 1 for yes, 0 for no
         'pad_counts'   => 0,    // 1 for yes, 0 for no
         'hierarchical' => 1,    // 1 for yes, 0 for no
         'hide_empty'   => 0,    // 1 for yes, 0 for no
         'echo'  => 0,           // 1 for yes, 0 for no
         'exclude' => '73, 74, 16', //best sellers, new, and uncategorized
         'depth'  => '1',        //top level categories, not sub
         'style'  => '',         //default is list with bullets, '' is without
  );

// Grab top level categories
$get_cats = wp_list_categories($args);

// Split into array items
$cat_array = explode("<br />",$get_cats);

// Amount of categories (count of items in array)
$results_total = count($cat_array);

// How many tags to show per list-8)
$remainder = ($results_total-8);
$cats_per_list = ($results_total-$remainder);

// Counter number for tagging onto each list
$list_number = 1;

// Set the category result counter to zero
$result_number = 0;
?>

<div class="cat_columns" id="cat-col-<?php echo $list_number; ?>">

<?php     
foreach($cat_array as $category) {        
                $result_number++;

if($result_number >= $cats_per_list) { 
     $result_number = 0; 
     $list_number++;
    echo '<div>'.$category.'</div> </div> <div class="cat_columns" id="cat-col-'.$list_number.'">';
}
 else {         
 echo '<div>'.$category.'</div>'; 
}
}
echo '<a href="//">View Categories</a>';
 ?> 

Im trying to list a maximum of ‘x’ product categories (a multiple of y) with a qty of ‘y’ in each column. ‘x’ decides how many columns are displayed.

What I am trying to do: - If there are less product categories than ‘x’ in the shop then display all. - If there are exactly ‘x’ then display ‘x’. - If there are more than ‘x’ display x-1 and display a “view all categories” link in the last place.

As an example: With 35 product categories. If max product categories=32 and qty per column=8, display 31 product categories in 4 columns and the "view all" link in 32nd place.

The total product categories are constantly changing so I am trying to make the code work dynamically for any amount, without the need to change the code, unless to change 'x' or 'y'.

Here is the basic code that I have been able to make work for me, however the link spills into the next column, rather than last place in the previous column. As a beginner I have exhausted my knowledge of if/else logic and everything else I have tried is messing up the output.

<?php

$args = array(
         'taxonomy'     => 'product_cat',
         'orderby'      => 'name',
         'number'       => 32,   //maximum to list
         'title_li'     => '',
         'show_count'   => 0,    // 1 for yes, 0 for no
         'pad_counts'   => 0,    // 1 for yes, 0 for no
         'hierarchical' => 1,    // 1 for yes, 0 for no
         'hide_empty'   => 0,    // 1 for yes, 0 for no
         'echo'  => 0,           // 1 for yes, 0 for no
         'exclude' => '73, 74, 16', //best sellers, new, and uncategorized
         'depth'  => '1',        //top level categories, not sub
         'style'  => '',         //default is list with bullets, '' is without
  );

// Grab top level categories
$get_cats = wp_list_categories($args);

// Split into array items
$cat_array = explode("<br />",$get_cats);

// Amount of categories (count of items in array)
$results_total = count($cat_array);

// How many tags to show per list-8)
$remainder = ($results_total-8);
$cats_per_list = ($results_total-$remainder);

// Counter number for tagging onto each list
$list_number = 1;

// Set the category result counter to zero
$result_number = 0;
?>

<div class="cat_columns" id="cat-col-<?php echo $list_number; ?>">

<?php     
foreach($cat_array as $category) {        
                $result_number++;

if($result_number >= $cats_per_list) { 
     $result_number = 0; 
     $list_number++;
    echo '<div>'.$category.'</div> </div> <div class="cat_columns" id="cat-col-'.$list_number.'">';
}
 else {         
 echo '<div>'.$category.'</div>'; 
}
}
echo '<a href="https://www.aaaa/all-categories//">View Categories</a>';
 ?> 

• categories
• woocommerce-offtopic
• menus
• array

• Not sure why this question has been down voted. I have posted the same question recently, which I believe was misinterpreted to some extent by the member who answered. They told me basically bad luck, to accept the answer and post a new question. So here it is, further clarified. I am not sure how to have this not considered a duplicate? Here is the previous question: wordpress.stackexchange/questions/346801/… – aye cee Commented Sep 10, 2019 at 2:56
• So, in your example, 'x' is 32 and 'y' is 8, right? – Sally CJ Commented Sep 11, 2019 at 0:10
• Yes thats exactly right – aye cee Commented Sep 11, 2019 at 0:31

1 Answer 1

So this is different from your code (and the one in the accepted answer to the other question), but it worked well for me:

You can remove the "\t" . and . "\n" which I added for pretty formatting purposes so that you could better inspect the generated HTML markup. And let me know if you have any question on any parts of the code. :)

// First, define these.
$max_cat_count = 32; // this is 'x'
$qty_per_column = 8; // this is 'y'

// Then the $args array.
$args = array(
    'taxonomy'   => 'product_cat',
    'number'     => $max_cat_count + 1, // keep the + 1
    'title_li'   => '',
    'hide_empty' => 0,
    'echo'       => 0,
    'style'      => '',
    // ... your other args here ...
);

// Get the categories list.
$get_cats = wp_list_categories( $args );

// Split the list into array items.
$cat_array = explode( "<br />", $get_cats );

$total = count( $cat_array );
$list_number = 1;
$_new_col = false;

foreach ( $cat_array as $i => $category ) {
    if ( $i >= $max_cat_count ) {
        break;
    }

    if ( $i % $qty_per_column === 0 ) {
        // Close previous column, if any.
        if ( $_new_col ) {
            echo '</div><!-- .cat_columns -->' . "\n";
        }

        // Open new column.
        $id = 'cat-col-' . $list_number;
        echo '<div class="cat_columns" id="' . $id . '">' . "\n";

        $_new_col = true;
        $list_number++; // increment the columns count
    }

    if ( $total > $max_cat_count && $i === $max_cat_count - 1 ) {
        // Make sure to change the # to the proper URL.
        echo "\t" . '<div><a href="#">View All</a></div>' . "\n";
    } else {
        echo "\t" . '<div>' . trim( $category ) . '</div>' . "\n";
    }
}
// Close last column, if any.
if ( $_new_col ) {
    echo '</div><!-- .cat_columns -->' . "\n";
}