Splitting the query will cause it to fetch just the IDs of the found posts (and then individually fetch each post by ID), rather than fetching every complete row at once. One massive result vs. many small results.
Parameters
$split_the_querybool
Whether or not to split the query.
$queryWP_Query
The WP_Query instance.
$old_requeststring
The complete SQL query before filtering.
$clausesstring[]
{ Associative array of the clauses for the query. @type string $where The WHERE clause of the query. @type string $groupby The GROUP BY clause of the query. @type string $join The JOIN clause of the query. @type string $orderby The ORDER BY clause of the query. @type string $distinct The DISTINCT clause of the query. @type string $fields The SELECT clause of the query. @type string $limits The LIMIT clause of the query.}
3398* @type string$orderby The ORDERBY clause of the query.3399* @type string$distinct The DISTINCT clause of the query.3400* @type string$fields The SELECT clause of the query.3401* @type string$limits The LIMIT clause of the query.3402*}3403*/3404$split_the_query=apply_filters('split_the_query',$split_the_query,$this,$old_request,compact($pieces));34053406if($split_the_query){3407// First get the IDs and then fill in the objects.34083409// Beginning of the string is on a new line to prevent leading whitespace. See https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/56841.3410$this->request=
History
Introduced in 3.4.0. Unchanged from 6.7.7 through 7.1.0.