Exclude Posts from Any Specific Category from RSS Feed in WordPress

Exclude Posts from Any Specific Category from RSS Feed

/**
 * Exclude Posts from Any Specific Category from RSS Feed in WordPress
 *
 * Use Case:
 * This function is designed for a scenario where you manage a website that publishes content
 * across ten different categories, but one specific category contains sensitive or restricted content.
 * To comply with your content distribution policy, you may wish to exclude that particular category
 * from appearing in the RSS feed.
 *
 * Solution:
 * The function below modifies the WordPress query before the RSS feed is generated, thereby
 * preventing posts from the specified category from being included in the feed.
 *
 * @param WP_Query $query The WP_Query instance (passed by reference).
 * @return WP_Query The modified query.
 */
function exclude_categories_from_rss_feed( $query ) {
	if ( $query->is_feed() ) {
		// Specify the category IDs to exclude (replace 5 with your actual category ID)
		$excluded_categories = array( 5 );
		$query->set( 'category__not_in', $excluded_categories );
	}

	return $query;
}
add_filter( 'pre_get_posts', 'exclude_categories_from_rss_feed' );