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How can I do a query to return the post if the custom field array contains a date that is within the specified range? The query below is basically what I am after but it does not work...

// the income_dates array looks like this
// a:3:{i:0;s:10:"2014-02-01";i:1;s:10:"2014-03-01";i:2;s:10:"2014-03-29";}

$today = date("Y-m-d");
$date1 = date("Y-m-d", strtotime($today . "-1 Month"));
$date2 = date("Y-m-d", strtotime($today . "+1 Month"));

$args = array(
    'post_type' => 'income',
    'meta_query' => array( 
        array(
            'key' => 'income_dates',
            'value' => $date1,
            'type'  => 'date',
            'compare' => '>'
        ),
        array(
            'key' => 'income_dates',
            'value' => $date2,
            'type'  => 'date',
            'compare' => '<'
        ),
    )
);
share|improve this question
 
If you need data comparison, you have to save the dates into multiple metas. Please refer to the Codex for the usage of add_post_meta. –  1fixdotio Feb 1 at 8:49
1  
Okay, I am already doing that. The income_dates custom field is holding the dates of recurring incomes and I thoight it would be better in an array otherwise the database might fill up pretty quickly. –  user537137 Feb 1 at 9:03
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1 Answer

up vote 0 down vote

I suggest don't store the meta values as array because (I think) is not what you need. I think you really need to store each meta value individually with its own pair of key/value and not a single key with a serialized values. When done in this way, you can use the BETWEEN comparison:

$today = date("Y-m-d");
//'BETWEEN' comparison with 'type' date only works with dates in format YYYYMMDD.
//See http://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query#Custom_Field_Parameters 
$date1 = date("YYYYMMDD", strtotime($today . "-1 Month"));
$date2 = date("YYYYMMDD", strtotime($today . "+1 Month"));

$args = array(
    'post_type' => 'income',
    'meta_query' => array( 
     array(
         'key' => 'income_dates',
         'value' =>  array($date1,$date2),
         'type'  => 'date',
         'compare' => 'BETWEEN'
         ),
     )
);
share|improve this answer
 
Thanks for the reply and yeah that would work but I would prefer to keep the dates in a single entry so I've just fetched all posts and using an if statement to get the results I'm after –  user537137 Feb 2 at 7:12
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