How to return tags containing one, two or three exact and specific words using get_tags

Question

I'm using get_tags (outside the loop) with the argument name__like to return tags containing one, two or three exact and specific words.

I already tried (not working):

$args = get_tags( 'orderby' => 'name','order' => 'ASC', array('name__like' => 'group', 'name__like' => 'worker', 'name__like' => 'student' ) );

and I also tried to use get_terms (not working):

$args = get_terms( 'post_tag', array('name__like' => 'group', 'name__like' => 'worker', 'name__like' => 'student') );

It only seems to work when I try to get tags containing only one word, like this:

$args = array('orderby' => 'name','order' => 'ASC','name__like' => 'worker',);

I'm finding a bit lost... Is not possible to use an array here?

This is the rest of my code, so far:

$tags = get_tags($args ); 
    if ( !empty( $tags ) && !is_wp_error( $tags ) ): ?>
    <?php foreach ( $tags as $tag ): ?>
     <?php echo '<a href="'.get_tag_link($tag->term_id).'" title="'.$tag->name.'" rel="tag">'.$tag->name.'</a>';?>
        <?php endforeach; ?>
    <?php endif; ?>

Answer 1

You can't use multiple arguments of the same name. You've passed 3 name__like arguments. This isn't going to work the way you expect.

Arguments that support multiple possible values will accept an Array, but name__like is not one of those arguments. name__like can only be a String.

The value passed to name like is passed into the SQL like this in WP_Term_Query::get_terms():

$this->sql_clauses['where']['name__like'] = $wpdb->prepare( "t.name LIKE %s", '%' . $wpdb->esc_like( $args['name__like'] ) . '%' );

So the value passed there is put directly into t.name LIKE %(here)%. But it's also excaped, so you can't use something like this (I tried):

'name__like' => 'worker% OR t.name LIKE %group'

The closest thing WP_Term_Query supports is multiple names:

'name' => ['worker', 'student', 'group']

But that will only match terms that are exactly worker, student or group.

To do what you're after will either require doing 3 separate calls to get_tags() or get_terms() with different values for name__like, or doing the query manually with $wpdb:

global $wpdb;

$results = $wpdb->get_results(
    "SELECT
        t.*, tt.*
    FROM
        wp_terms AS t
    INNER JOIN
        wp_term_taxonomy AS tt ON
            t.term_id = tt.term_id
    WHERE
        tt.taxonomy = 'post_tag' AND 
        (
            t.name LIKE '%worker%' OR
            t.name LIKE '%group%' OR
            t.name LIKE '%student%'
        )
    ORDER BY
        t.name ASC"
);

if ( ! empty( $results ) ) {
    $tags = array_map( 'get_term', $results ); // Turn each result into a proper WP_Term object.

    foreach ( $tags as $tag ) {
        echo $tag->name;
    }
}

Note that if those particular words are dynamic, you'll need to prepare the query with $wpdb->prepare().