Strange results from WP_Query

Question

I'm trying to retreive a set of custom posts using the following:

// set search conditions
$args = array(
    'posts_per_page' => -1,
    'post_type' => 'fee',
    'meta_key' => 'fee_code',
    'meta_value' => $postmeta['fee_code']
);

// get results
$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );

The 'fee_code' is coming from elsewhere in my plugin and contains a 5 digit number (int). If I view the SQL that is being generated it gives me the results I want (in this case 2 results).

SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS wp_posts.ID
FROM   wp_posts
       INNER JOIN wp_postmeta
               ON ( wp_posts.ID = wp_postmeta.post_id )
WHERE  1 = 1
   AND (( wp_postmeta.meta_key = 'fee_code'
          AND wp_postmeta.meta_value = '13632' ))
   AND wp_posts.post_type = 'fee'      
GROUP  BY wp_posts.ID
ORDER  BY wp_posts.post_date DESC
LIMIT  0, 10;

If I run this SQL in phpMyAdmin I get the 2 results I want, but when I run the plugin in WordPress I get 10 posts returned, none of which have '13632' (the fee code I'm looking for in this example) in any field associated with the post.

On other searches I get the results I'm looking for. I can't figure out why in this case I get so many extra, unrelated results.

Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?

ADDITION: I have another query I was trying to use, which looks at two criteria.

$args = array(
    'posts_per_page' => 25,
    'post_type' => 'fee',
    'post_status' => 'publish',
    'meta_query' => array(
        'relation' => 'OR',
        array( // find matches in fee code field
            'key' => 'fee_code',
            'value' => $postmeta['fee_code']
        ),
        array( // find matches in grouped fees section
            'key' => 'grouped_fees',
            'value' => $postmeta['fee_code'],
            'compare' => 'LIKE'
        ),
    )
);

The first part of the meta_query should be the same as my original question and the second is looking for the same fee code in a custom field where it is grouped with a number of other related fees. This query also returns the same unrelated posts for this search and the appropriate results for other searches.

Answer 1

You want to use posts_per_page instead of numberposts. Take a look at the Pagination Parameters for WP_Query.