Order by custom field in query multiple

Question

After performing this question, I went to the next step and I wanted to sort the query results by another custom field.

I want to sort the results by a custom field that consists of a date and want to get the order from lowest to highest date

The problem is that I do not get what I ordered. I've tried several ways with no success, I googled several sites and nothing. It gives me much trouble to ask you again but I can not solve this problem.

Anyone can help me? : '(

I leave my code to see where you should embed the orderby:

    $group_1 = get_posts(
    array(
        'posts_per_page' => 30,
        'fields'         => 'ids',
        'meta_query'     => array (
            array (
                'key'   => 'field1',
                'value' => 'data1,
            ),
            array (
                'key'   => 'field2',
                'value' => 'data2',
            ),
        ),
    )
);

$group_2 = get_posts(
    array(
        'posts_per_page' => 30,
        'fields'         => 'ids',
        'meta_query'     => array (
            array (
                'key'   => 'field1',
                'value' => 'data2',
            ),
            array (
                'key'   => 'field2',
                'value' => 'data1',
            ),
        ),
    )
);

$the_query = new WP_Query(
    array(
        'post__in' => array_merge( $group_1, $group_2)
    )
);

Thanks!

Answer 1

You need 'order_by' => 'post__in' in the last query in order to "Preserve post ID order given in the post__in array (available with Version 3.5).".

I don't know if the order you are passing in is the order you want after the array_merge( $group_1, $group_2). In other words, you need to feed that second query an ordered set of IDs and you don't seem to be doing that.

I also can't tell if one or the meta_keys you've already queried is what you want to orderby. Possibly something like this will work:

$the_query = new WP_Query(
    array(
        'post__in' => array_merge( $group_1, $group_2),
        'meta_key' => 'your_date_field_key',
        'orderby'  => 'meta_value',
    )
);

That is completely untested. Possibly buggy. Caveat emptor. No refunds.