WP_Query including all child pages excluding pages with children of their own

I don’t think what you want is possible with a simple WP_Query. You’d probably need to construct your own SQL query and execute it using $wpdb methods.

Or maybe another possibility could be to make multiple queries. Start with your query as is, and identify child posts with children the same way, but do not generate any output yet. Assemble all immediate children post IDs who have children of their own, which you want excluded. Make a new query for immediate children, but this time include the array of unwanted IDs as the “post__not_in” argument. The results this time will be as desired and the pagination should work correctly.

A custom SQL query would be more efficient, but I’ve no idea myself on how that might be constructed.

Hi bcworkz,

Thanks for your suggestions. I am not sure how to do it using sql so went with your other suggestion and this is what I’ve got. – and it works.

			<?php
			
			global $post;
			$ourCurrentPage = get_query_var('paged');
			
			$thispost = $post->ID;
			
			$allmypages = new WP_Query(array(
				'post_type' => 'page',
				'post_parent' => $post->ID,
				'showposts' => -1
			));			
			
			$i = 0;
			if ($allmypages->have_posts()) :
				while ($allmypages->have_posts()) :
					$allmypages->the_post();
					$children = get_pages( array( 'child_of' => $post->ID ) );
					$count_of_children = count( $children );
					/* echo $post->ID; ?> - <?php echo the_title(); ?> - <?php echo $count_of_children . '<br>'; */
					if( $count_of_children > 0 ) {
						$pageswithchildren[++$i] = $post->ID;
					}
				endwhile;
			endif;

			$mypages = new WP_Query(array(
				'post_type' => 'page',
				'post_parent' => $thispost,
				'showposts' => 10,
				'post__not_in' => $pageswithchildren,
				'paged' => $ourCurrentPage,
				'order' => desc,
				'orderby' => ID
			));

			?>
			<div class="bdl-pagination woocommerce-pagination">
				<?php
				echo paginate_links(array('total' => $mypages->max_num_pages));
				?>
			</div>
			<?php
			
			if ($mypages->have_posts()) : 
				while ($mypages->have_posts()) : 
					$mypages->the_post();
						?>
						<div class="bdl-child-pages">
							<h2><?php the_title(); ?></h2> 		
							<div class="entry page-<?php echo the_ID(); ?>"><?php echo the_content(); ?></div> 
							<div class="bdl-read-more"><a class="button" href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>">Read more...</a></div>
						</div>
						<?php	
				endwhile;
				
				?>
				<div class="bdl-pagination woocommerce-pagination">
					<?php
					echo paginate_links(array('total' => $mypages->max_num_pages));
					?>
				</div>
				<?php
			endif;
			
			wp_reset_postdata();
			?>