These "variations" you see are the parameters of WP Query. In the link you can see all the (many) possible combinations that can be made. Answering your questions in particular:
Show articles with letter A
Articles containing the letter A, in whichever article point? Articles whose title initiating with the letter A?
Assuming it is the last one, I believe you have to make some sort of filter after the consultation. I don’t know if this is possible just by using the query parameters. You can do something like this:
$args = array(
'orderby' => 'title',
'order' => 'ASC',
'posts_per_page' => -1 //retorna todos os posts da base
);
query_posts($args);
if (have_posts()) {
$letra = 'A';
while (have_posts()){
the_post();
$letraInicial = strtoupper(substr($post->post_title,0,1));
if ($letraInicial == $letra) {
// coisas do loop, como the_title() e etc
}
}
}
This code is far from great, but I believe it works as proof of concept. Basically, it searches all the posts from your base, and compares the first letter of each of them with a letter that you previously established. For more complex or even more performative queries, you can play with the $wpdb.
Show 20 articles
There is a proper parameter for this:
$args = array(
'orderby' => 'title',
'order' => 'ASC',
'posts_per_page' => 20 //retorna o número de posts desejados
);
In query string format:
/?orderby=title&order=asc&posts_per_page=20
came to see the answer?
– Caio Felipe Pereira