As a rule of thumb, usually we can say wp_query > get_posts > query_posts, meaning; you should almost never ever use First, lets establish the fact that the end result is the same for all 3 methods; you’ll get 1 random post – object. I used the very same query args for all 3 methods:<\/p>\n And like I said the result you are gonna get is the same:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So, lets get down to the main point, the speed. Like you can imagine, <\/p>\n The question was which was slightly better, get_posts or wp_query ? I thought wp_query would do better, like it usually does, since get_posts is essentially a wrapper for wp_query, but to my suprise, get_posts was faster:<\/p>\n I ran it 10,000 times to make sure – instead of 100. But the result wouldn’t change if you ran it for a mil. time: Update: I’ve added a $wpdb function to directly query the db, result is the same, get_posts is still faster.<\/p>\nquery_posts()<\/code>, get_posts()<\/code>,wp_query()<\/code>, $wpdb<\/code><\/p>\nquery_posts<\/code>. And usually between the two, wp_query.<\/code> performs better over get_posts<\/code> in most situations. But, in our case, that’s not the case.<\/p>\n\t\tfunction eo_get_a_post_queryposts(){\r\n\t\t\t$args = array( 'posts_per_page' => 1, 'orderby' => 'rand' );\r\n\t\t\t$rand_post = query_posts( $args );\r\n\t\t\treturn $rand_post;\r\n\t\t}\r\n\t\tfunction eo_get_a_post_getposts(){\r\n\t\t\t$args = array( 'posts_per_page' => 1, 'orderby' => 'rand' );\r\n\t\t\t$rand_post = get_posts( $args );\r\n\t\t\treturn $rand_post;\r\n\t\t}\r\n\t\tfunction eo_get_a_post_wpquery(){\r\n\t\t\t$args = array( 'posts_per_page' => 1, 'orderby' => 'rand' );\r\n\t\t\t$rand_post_query_result = new WP_Query( $args );\r\n\t\t\t$rand_post = $rand_post_query_result->posts[0];\r\n\t\t\treturn $rand_post;\r\n\t\t}\r\n\t\tfunction eo_get_a_post_wpdb() {\r\n\t\t\tglobal $wpdb;\r\n\t\t\t$rand_post = $wpdb->get_results(\"SELECT * FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_status = 'publish' AND post_type = 'post' ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1\");\r\n\t\t\treturn $rand_post;\r\n\t\t}<\/pre>\n![\"eogetonepostrand1\"](\"http:\/\/static.eminozlem.com\/uploads\/2015\/08\/eogetonepostrand1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nquery_posts<\/del><\/code> is off the table, you can see how poorly it does compared to get_posts<\/code>:<\/p>\n![\"eogetonepostrand2\"](\"http:\/\/static.eminozlem.com\/uploads\/2015\/08\/eogetonepostrand2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"eogetonepostrand3\"](\"http:\/\/static.eminozlem.com\/uploads\/2015\/08\/eogetonepostrand3.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"eogetonepostrand4\"](\"http:\/\/static.eminozlem.com\/uploads\/2015\/08\/eogetonepostrand4.jpg\")
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![\"ceClipboard01\"](\"http:\/\/static.eminozlem.com\/uploads\/2015\/08\/ceClipboard01.jpg\")
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