Why is this coming back as null? Thats wrong. There is one post

As per wordpress codex, the_post() “Iterate the post index in The Loop. Retrieves the next post, sets up the post, sets the ‘in the loop’ property to true.” This all occurs within the post object itself.

If you only have 1 post, and run the_post twice, you’ll reach the end of the post count. In this case, even doing a var_dump of the_post still runs the function, which is why you’re not seeing results below…you’ve already reached the end of the loop before you start trying to output data.

Also “This function does not return any values.”

Meaning your var_dump will always return null, because you’re dumping the results of a function which returns nothing.

If you want useful results, var_dump($category_posts) will return the post object, which will contain any posts found and other information. ->the_post is just a method of the post object itself.

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