Is there a function to get the list of nodes by type?

Question

Is there a function like node_load() that returns a list of nodes by a given content type?

I've tried $nodes = node_load(array("type" => 'student_vote')), but it only returns one node.

I know I could code up something like node_load(), but I wanted to see if there might be anything like that out there already.

Answer 1

The code to use depends from the Drupal version.

Drupal 6

$nodes = db_query('SELECT nid FROM {node} WHERE type="%s"', $type);

Drupal 7

$nodes = node_load_multiple(array(), array('type' => $type));

Drupal 8

$nids = \Drupal::entityQuery('node')
  ->condition('type', 'NODETYPE')
  ->execute();
$nodes = \Drupal::entityTypeManager()
  ->getStorage('node')
  ->loadMultiple($nids);

Answer 2

There is no such API for Drupal 6. The closest you can do is to properly query for all node ID for the content type then load each one using node_load() but this will require n+1 queries and is not very efficient.

function node_load_by_type($type, $limit = 15, $offset = 0) {
  $nodes = array();
  $query = db_rewrite_sql("SELECT nid FROM {node} n WHERE type = '%s'", 'n');
  $results = db_query_range($query, $type, $offset, $limit);
  while($nid = db_result($results)) {
    $nodes[] = node_load($nid);
  }
  return $nodes;
}

Note: db_rewrite_sql will ensure access check and other module provided filtering (such as language filtering provided by the i18n module).

For Drupal 7, you can use $nodes = node_load_multiple(array(), array('type' => $type));but the $conditions argument of node_load_multiple() is deprecated. Instead, you should use EntityFieldQuery to query for the node IDs then use node_load_multiple() but without a $conditions argument.

function node_load_by_type($type, $limit = 15, $offset = 0) {
  $query = new EntityFieldQuery();
  $query->entityCondition('entity_type', 'node')
    ->entityCondition('bundle', $type)
    ->range($offset, $limit);
  $results = $query->execute();
  return node_load_multiple(array_keys($results['node']));
}

Answer 3

There's several good answers already, but they take the question literally and refer to nodes only.

Since D6 doesn't have an API for doing what is being asked for, and it's not necessary to limit oneself to nodes in D7 and forward, I feel a good answer should be entity generic.

function entity_load_by_type($entity_type, $bundle, $limit = 10, $offset = 0) {
  $query = new EntityFieldQuery();
  $query->entityCondition('entity_type', $entity_type)
    ->entityCondition('bundle', $bundle)
    ->range($offset, $limit);
  $results = $query->execute();
  return entity_load($entity_type, array_keys($results[$]));
}

Answer 4

Drupal 8+

$content_type = 'article';
$articles = \Drupal::entityTypeManager()->getStorage('node')->loadByProperties([
  'type' => $content_type,
]);

Answer 5

At the end, Drupal 8 deprecated functions like node_load_multiple(), user_load_multiple(), not just the $conditions parameter they used. This means it isn't possible to write Drupal 7 code that is compatible with Drupal 8, as the classes used in Drupal 8 aren't available on Drupal 7.

Drupal 7 code can still use node_load_multiple() and its $conditions parameter. To load all the nodes whose content type is $content_type, it's sufficient to use the following code.

$nodes = node_load_multiple(array(), array('type' => $content_type));

A more generic code that works for any entity would be the following one.

$entities = entity_load($entity_type, array(), array('type' => $bundle);

Despite the name, entity_load() loads more entities. It's the function used from node_load_multiple().

function node_load_multiple($nids = array(), $conditions = array(), $reset = FALSE) {
  return entity_load('node', $nids, $conditions, $reset);
}