WordPress: multiple loops

Question

I have two loops on my page - each with their own category. It works, but I don't know if this is the best practice as I'm pretty new to this stuff.

<?php $my_query = new WP_Query( 'category_name=news&posts_per_page=3' );
        while ( $my_query->have_posts() ) : $my_query->the_post();
                $do_not_duplicate[] = $post->ID; ?>
                <!-- Do stuff... -->
<?php get_template_part( 'content', get_post_format() ); ?>

<?php endwhile; ?>

<?php $second_query = new WP_Query( 'category_name=reviews&posts_per_page=4' );
        while ( $second_query->have_posts() ) : $second_query->the_post();
                $do_not_duplicate[] = $post->ID; ?>
                <!-- Do stuff... -->
<?php get_template_part( 'content', get_post_format() ); ?>

<?php endwhile; ?>

Answer 1

The only thing that changes between the first and second half is the query parameters.

<?php

foreach (array('news' => 3, 'reviews' => 4) as $category => $posts_per_page) {
    $wp_query = new WP_Query(
        "category_name=$category&posts_per_page=$posts_per_page"
    );
    while ( $wp_query->have_posts() ) {
        # etc.
    }
}

?>

Answer 2

Since you don't have any literals in this PHP file you don't need to open and close the PHP tags all over the place.

Here is how it would look if you did what I am saying.

<?php 
    $my_query = new WP_Query( 'category_name=news&posts_per_page=3' );
    while ( $my_query->have_posts() ) : 
        $my_query->the_post();
        $do_not_duplicate[] = $post->ID; 
        get_template_part( 'content', get_post_format() ); 
    endwhile; 

    $second_query = new WP_Query( 'category_name=reviews&posts_per_page=4' );
    while ( $second_query->have_posts() ) : 
        $second_query->the_post();
        $do_not_duplicate[] = $post->ID; 
        get_template_part( 'content', get_post_format() ); 
    endwhile; 
?>

This makes it much clearer what your code is doing.

I would rewrite it like this and double check that the code is actually doing what you want it to do. My guess is that you have copy pasted this code from somewhere and are trying to alter it to fit your purposes.