The Loop, by default (read: the Loop in Default Theme) display the Posts chronologically with the most recent Post at the very top followed by less recent Posts.

The following is a sample of common usage of the Loop in theme’s index.php to have a journal-like WordPress installation.

1. <?php get_header(); ?>
2.  
3. <div id="content">
4.  
5. <?php if( have_posts() ) : ?>
6.  
7. <?php while( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
8.  
9. <div class="post" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
10. <h2><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
11. <div class="meta"><?php the_category( ', ' ); ?> <?php the_author(); ?> <?php the_time('F jS, Y'); ?></div>
12. <div class="entry">
13. <?php the_content(); ?>
14. </div>
15. </div>
16.  
17. <?php endwhile; ?>
18.  
19. <?php else : ?>
20.  
21. <div class="error">
22. <h2>Not Found</h2>
23. <p>Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn't here.</p>
24. <?php include( TEMPLATEPATH . '/searchform.php' ); ?>
25. </div>
26.  
27. <?php endif; ?>
28.  
29. </div>
30.  
31. <?php get_footer(); ?>

Line 7 indicates the start of the Loop and line 17 ends it. Inside the Loop, Post data are displayed through the call of several Template Tags such as the_title(), the_category(), the_author(), and the_content(). Any other Post-related Template Tags can be placed within the Loop and the corresponding output will be displayed with each Post.