Miscellany

   function mp_posts_in_cat($id_cat = array('all'),$the_limit = 7, $orderby = 'post_modified',$exclude = array('none')){       //declare global some wp database variables...       global $wpdb, $tableposts, $tablepost2cat;       //build WHERE clause for query (posts in category)       if($id_cat[0] == 'all') {           $where = '';       }       else {           $where = '(';           foreach($id_cat as $cat) {               $where .= "P2C.category_id = '$cat' OR ";           }           $where = substr($where, 0, strlen($where)-4);           $where .= ') AND ';       }       //remove excluded posts from query results       if(is_array($exclude) && $exclude[0] != 'none') {           $where .= 'POST.ID != (';           foreach($exclude as $dontshow) {               $where .='$dontshow, ';               $where = substr($where, 0, strlen($where)-2);           }           $where .= ') AND ';       }       elseif(is_numeric($exclude)) {           $where .= 'POST.ID != '.$exclude.' AND';       }       //Limit clause       if($the_limit != '' && is_numeric($the_limit)) {           $the_limit = 'LIMIT '. $the_limit;       }       // the query       $q = "           SELECT               P2C.*, POST.ID, POST.post_title, DATE_FORMAT('POST.post_date', '%m %d %y') AS post_date_formatted           FROM               $wpdb->posts POST, $wpdb->post2cat P2C           WHERE               $where POST.post_status = 'publish' AND POST.ID = P2C.post_id           GROUP BY               post_id           ORDER BY               POST.$orderby DESC $the_limit           ";       // do the query       $arts = $wpdb->get_results($q);           if ($arts){               //prepare output               foreach ($arts as $art){               $output .= '<li>'.$art->post_date_formatted.'<a href="'.get_permalink($art->ID).'" title="'.$art->post_title.'">'.$art->post_title.'</a></li>';               }           }       return $output;   }