I was able to find a function that worked found here.
First, I added the below code to my functions.php
, which excludes the parent categories I do not want:
function custom_get_the_category_list() {
$categories = get_the_category();
$exclude1 = get_cat_ID( 'Parent1' );
$exclude2 = get_cat_ID( 'Parent2' );
$categories_list="";
foreach ( $categories as $category ) {
if ( $category->category_parent == $exclude1
|| $category->cat_ID == $exclude1 || $category->category_parent == $exclude2
|| $category->cat_ID == $exclude2 ) {
continue;
}
$categories_list .=
'<li><a href="' . get_category_link( $category->cat_ID ) . '">' .
$category->name .
'</a></li>';
}
return '<ul class="post-categories">' . $categories_list . '</ul>';
}
And then in my loop, instead of using get_the_category_list($post->ID)
, I used the new function custom_get_the_category_list()
.
It certainly works, but if anyone finds a simpler solution please post.