WordPress SQL Query Generator

<?php
/**
 * A direct database query.
 *
 * Reach for WP_Query, get_posts() or get_terms() first: they are cached and
 * they respect every filter a plugin has added. This is for the cases they
 * genuinely cannot express.
 */

/**
 * Runs the query.
 *
 * @return mixed
 */
function my_plugin_query() {
	global $wpdb;

	$table = $wpdb->posts;

	// A direct query is not cached by WordPress. Without a persistent object
	// cache this is per request, which still helps on a page that asks twice.
	$key    = 'my_plugin_query';
	$cached = wp_cache_get( $key, 'my_plugin' );

	if ( false !== $cached ) {
		return $cached;
	}

	// The SQL is built with concatenation rather than interpolation, so the
	// only things that reach the query unescaped are written here by you.
	$sql = 'SELECT ID, post_title FROM ' . $table;
	$args = array();

	$sql .= ' WHERE 1 = 1';

	$sql   .= ' AND post_status = %s';
	$args[] = 'publish';

	$sql   .= ' AND post_type = %s';
	$args[] = 'post';

	// A column name cannot be a placeholder, so it is written here and never
	// taken from a request.
	$sql .= ' ORDER BY post_date DESC';

	$sql   .= ' LIMIT %d';
	$args[] = 20;

	// phpcs:ignore WordPress.DB.PreparedSQL.NotPrepared -- $sql is built above from literals.
	$result = $wpdb->get_results( $wpdb->prepare( $sql, $args ) );

	wp_cache_set( $key, $result, 'my_plugin', 5 * MINUTE_IN_SECONDS );

	return $result;
}