Is there any difference between below WP_Query code snippets?

Question

Below code return the same results. Is it any difference between them and if it is then which one is better?

code snippet 1:

$args = array(
    'post_type' => 'product',
    'meta_key' => 'location',
    'meta_value' => 'Melbourne'
);

$query = new WP_Query( $args );

code snippet 2:

$args = array(
    'post_type'  => 'product',
    'meta_query' => array(
        array(
            'key'     => 'location',
            'value'   => 'Melbourne'
        ),
    ),
);
$query = new WP_Query( $args );

Answer 1

There is no difference in terms of the "final" query. The former was the "old" way of querying post meta, before WP_Meta_Query was introduced with support for more complex queries.

WP_Query::get_posts() now simply translates meta_key/value arguments into the new format with WP_Meta_Query::parse_query_vars().

Use whichever format you feel suits best for the task.