Order by meta_key where value is serialized

Question

I'd order post by meta_key but i've a problem with meta_value because is serialized object.

I'd order my post per count value.

a:2:{s:5:"count";d:9750;s:7:"timeout";i:1358466733;}

I use below code but order correctly until wp version 3.4.2 after update to 3.5 order by date:

 if (have_posts()) :
    $args=array(
    'meta_key' => 'tweets_count',
    'orderby' => 'meta_value',
    'showposts' => 10,
      ); 
      query_posts($args);
      while (have_posts()) : the_post();
//loop

stamp request:

REQUEST:SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS wp_posts.ID FROM wp_posts WHERE 1=1 AND wp_posts.post_type = 'post' AND (wp_posts.post_status = 'publish' OR wp_posts.post_status = 'private') ORDER BY wp_posts.post_date DESC LIMIT 0, 10

Thanks.

Answer 1

Yes, it is possible, however your question is not really precise.

What you experience is probably already that it is possible to sort by meta_key even the value of it is a string of some serialized data - it's just that this is the standard binary sort and Wordpress does not take care about that this is a string with serialized data - it's just a string for the sort.

So the answer is: Yes, but this is not what you ask for.

Next to that answer, there is no feature built into Wordpress so far to search for some value inside a meta_value and then sort for that (sub) value.

It is required that you first get the whole result-set and then sort the data your own. This depends a bit on how you want to use it (you have not shared any code, so it is hard to say), technically there are multiple ways to do so.