Is this the right way to filter channel entries using conditional variables?

Question

Is this the most efficient way to filter a load of channel entries? I want to display entries that have no comments and that are not sticky. I'm using this code.

{exp:channel:entries channel="{segment_3}" status="open" orderby="date" disable="categories|category_fields|member_data|pagination"}

  {if comment_total == "0" AND sticky == 'n'}
    ...
  {/if}

{/exp:channel:entries}

Cheers Lee

Answer 1

Using conditional variables, probably. But this will likely return lots more results than you need. Plus you won't be able to accurately use {count} (maybe not an issue for you, though).

Another approach which doesn't use conditional variables, but just goes straight after the results you want, and only the results you want, is to use the Query Module

{exp:query sql=
    "SELECT title
    FROM exp_channels
    JOIN exp_channel_titles ON exp_channels.channel_id = exp_channel_titles.channel_id
    WHERE exp_channels.channel_name = '{segment_3}'
    AND exp_channel_titles.status = 'open'
    AND exp_channel_titles.sticky = 'n'
    AND exp_channel_titles.comment_total = 0"
}
    <li>{title}</li>
{/exp:query}

This could get tedious if you needed to access a bunch of custom fields, but it is an efficient way to get the results you want.