Limit the number of posts shown

Display Posts lists 10 posts by default, but you can change this using the posts_per_page parameter in a shortcode.

For instance, if you only wanted to list two posts, use:

[display-posts posts_per_page="2"]

If you want to list every post, use “-1” as the value:

[display-posts posts_per_page="-1"]

Set new default for posts_per_page

If you find yourself typing the same value for posts_per_page in most of your shortcodes, it might be a good idea to set that as the default on your website.

The following code changes the default to 20 (change this to whatever you’d like it to be).

/**
 * Set Defaults in Display Posts Shortcode
 * @see https://displayposts.com/2019/01/04/change-default-attributes/
 *
 * @param array $out, the output array of shortcode attributes (after user-defined and defaults have been combined)
 * @param array $pairs, the supported attributes and their defaults
 * @param array $atts, the user defined shortcode attributes
 * @return array $out, modified output
 */
function be_dps_defaults( $out, $pairs, $atts ) {
	$new_defaults = array( 
		'posts_per_page' => 20,
	);
	
	foreach( $new_defaults as $name => $default ) {
		if( array_key_exists( $name, $atts ) )
			$out[$name] = $atts[$name];
		else
			$out[$name] = $default;
	}
	
	return $out;
}
add_filter( 'shortcode_atts_display-posts', 'be_dps_defaults', 10, 3 );

Now if you use [display-posts] without a posts_per_page parameter, it will list 20 posts.

You can still change this on a per-shortcode basis by using the posts_per_page parameter. The following shortcode will display 2 posts:

[display-posts posts_per_page="2"]

Use value in Settings > Reading as default

WordPress lets you how many posts to display on archive pages in Settings > Reading. The following code will use that value as the default for Display Posts as well.

/**
 * Set Defaults in Display Posts Shortcode
 * @see https://displayposts.com/2019/01/04/change-default-attributes/
 *
 * @param array $out, the output array of shortcode attributes (after user-defined and defaults have been combined)
 * @param array $pairs, the supported attributes and their defaults
 * @param array $atts, the user defined shortcode attributes
 * @return array $out, modified output
 */
function be_dps_defaults( $out, $pairs, $atts ) {
	$new_defaults = array( 
		'posts_per_page' => intval( get_option( 'page_for_posts' ) ),
	);
	
	foreach( $new_defaults as $name => $default ) {
		if( array_key_exists( $name, $atts ) )
			$out[$name] = $atts[$name];
		else
			$out[$name] = $default;
	}
	
	return $out;
}
add_filter( 'shortcode_atts_display-posts', 'be_dps_defaults', 10, 3 );