Get the exact SQL query that get_posts() generated

I am working on a WordPress that someone else started and then disappeared. She created a few custom content types and variables using different plugins and I now want to access the data sets in the functions she created for her template.

$args = array(
                'suppress_filters' => 0,
                'posts_per_page' => -1,
                'sort_order' => 'ASC',
                'sort_column' => 'post_title',
                'post_type' => 'inst',
                'post_status' => 'publish'
);
$content = get_posts($args);

I have been looking around and different findings suggested using the following variable to get the SQL used:

echo $GLOBALS['wp_query']->request;

However, what this returns is not the query that shows the post data appearing on the page. When I run that in MySQL directly, it returns exactly 1 result and I think it’s the whole page? Because I defined two datasets and there are two fields appearing on the page but only 1 row in the query that’s echoed by above line.

I need to know the exact attributes of the WP_Query object in $content but var_dump($content) also doesn’t contain the fields I defined. I need to get the image that’s in the content typeset, but I can only get the name of the set accessing $content->post_title.

Is there a way to dig into what get_posts() gets from the database and how I can access the attributes I need?

The get_posts() function creates an instance of WP_Query inside the function and simply returns the array of results. This WP_Query instance doesn’t override the global $wp_query and is out of scope by the time you need it. In short, I don’t see a way how you can get the requested SQL via get_posts().

An alternative is to simply create your own instance of WP_Query and pass your get_posts() arguments to it:

$query = new WP_Query( array(
    'post_type'         => 'inst',
    'post_status'       => 'publish'
    'posts_per_page'    => -1,
    'order'             => 'ASC',           // sort_order
    'orderby'           => 'post_title',    // sort_column
) );

That will give you the whole WP_Query object where you can output the SQL:

$query_sql = $query->request;

Finally, if you’re already creating a WP_Query you don’t need the get_posts() call at all at that point.

if( $query->have_posts() ) {

    while( $query->have_posts() ) {

        $query->the_post();
        the_content();

    }

    // Reset the global $wp_query to what it was originally.
    wp_reset_postdata();
}