get_pages function: number and child_of parameters conflict

[ortsaipekim]

Passing both number and child_of parameters to get_pages will produce nonsensical results.

Within the function number is used first to limit the number of results, then child_of is used to establish results within a certain hierarchical scope.

So with a structure of:

Parent 1 
Parent 2
Parent 3
   Child 1
   Child 2 
   Child 3

passing a number=2 and child_of=(parent 3 id) will not give the expected output. In this case, the result will first be limited to only include:

Parent 1 
Parent 2

so the child_of will be ignored. To produce a more logical result, child_of should be evaluated first, then number should be evaluated to limit the result set.

[ortsaipekim]

I meant to demonstrate the heirarchy as the following:

Parent 1
Parent 2
Parent 3

Child 1
Child 2
Child 3

[arakeis]

the proposed patch passes the number argument to the get_children function and prevents get_pages from limit(ing) the result from the query.
works fine on one of my client's site.

[JoshSalverda]

A quick fix for this is to pass in the "parent={parent_id}" along with all your other arguments. Obviously not a fix for the bug but if you need this sort of functionality then it will work for now.

[dd32]

Bumping to Future release due to limited traction.

This also needs testing to ensure it doesn't break on complex queries involving children and offset/number

[SergeyBiryukov]

Closed #10745 as a duplicate.

[SergeyBiryukov]

#52313 was marked as a duplicate.

[SergeyBiryukov]

Related: #14477, #36313.

[SirLouen]

Reproduction Report

Description

❌ This report can't validates that the issue can be reproduced anymore

Environment

• WordPress: 6.9-alpha-60093-src
• PHP: 8.2.29
• Server: nginx/1.29.1
• Database: mysqli (Server: 8.4.6 / Client: mysqlnd 8.2.29)
• Browser: Chrome 139.0.0.0
• OS: Windows 10/11
• Theme: Twenty Twenty-Three 1.6
• MU Plugins: None activated
• Plugins:
  • BBB Testing Dolly
  • Test Reports 1.2.0

Testing Instrutions

1. Added the structure of Parent/Childs as in OP
2. Used the snippet provided in Supp Artifacts
3. 👌 Two Childs are shown as expected

Actual Results

1. ❌ Error condition is not occurring

Additional Notes

• Things have changed significantly for the past years and the function does not look not even close to what it used to look when patch was released. For this reason I have to close this as worksforme

Supplemental Artifacts

function test_get_pages() {
    $parent3_id = 161;
    $pages = get_pages(array(
        'number' => 2,
        'child_of' => $parent3_id,
    ));

    echo '<pre>';
    if (!empty($pages)) {
        foreach ($pages as $page) {
            echo 'Title: ' . $page->post_title . "\n";
        }
    } else {
        echo 'No pages found.';
    }
    echo '</pre>';
}
add_action('wp_footer', 'test_get_pages');