SQL query generated by WP_Query is not the same what request echoes

Question

given this code:

    $args = array(
        'post_type' => 'post',
        'post_status' => 'publish',
        'cat' => $cat,
        'orderby' => 'date',
        'order' => 'DESC',
        'publish_from' => 1,
        'publish_to' => 1,
        's' => $s,
        'tag' => $tag,
        'paged' => (int)$next,
        'posts_per_page' => (int)$ppp
    );
    $query = new WP_Query($args);
    echo $query->request.'!<br>';
    $query = $query->get_posts();
    echo sizeof($query);die;

it echoes the following SQL:

SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS wp_16_posts.* FROM wp_16_posts WHERE 1=1 AND (wp_16_posts.publish_to IS NULL OR wp_16_posts.publish_to > now()) AND (wp_16_posts.publish_from IS NULL OR wp_16_posts.publish_from < now()) AND (((wp_16_posts.post_title LIKE '{77b35c99deebcd176e45c5740dc2f5707adf3f48c63f743d524469d6161873c4}rosszkor233{77b35c99deebcd176e45c5740dc2f5707adf3f48c63f743d524469d6161873c4}') OR (wp_16_posts.post_excerpt LIKE '{77b35c99deebcd176e45c5740dc2f5707adf3f48c63f743d524469d6161873c4}rosszkor233{77b35c99deebcd176e45c5740dc2f5707adf3f48c63f743d524469d6161873c4}') OR (wp_16_posts.post_content LIKE '{77b35c99deebcd176e45c5740dc2f5707adf3f48c63f743d524469d6161873c4}rosszkor233{77b35c99deebcd176e45c5740dc2f5707adf3f48c63f743d524469d6161873c4}'))) AND wp_16_posts.post_type = 'post' AND ((wp_16_posts.post_status = 'publish')) ORDER BY wp_16_posts.post_date DESC LIMIT 0, 8

running this in an SQL browser, it returns nothing. But above I echo the length of the result - its 8! So WP_Query cant run that SQL what I see... what can be wrong? Its the newest WordPress

Answer 1

$wp_query->result is not the final stage of the query. It needs to be passed through $wpdb to be properly executed.

The main issue is the fact that the LIKE wildcards % have not been unescaped. If you replace the {77b35c9 etc.} sets of characters, including the brackets, with % you should get pretty much the final query:

SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS wp_16_posts.* FROM wp_16_posts WHERE 1=1 AND (wp_16_posts.publish_to IS NULL OR wp_16_posts.publish_to > now()) AND (wp_16_posts.publish_from IS NULL OR wp_16_posts.publish_from < now()) AND (((wp_16_posts.post_title LIKE '%rosszkor233%') OR (wp_16_posts.post_excerpt LIKE '%rosszkor233%') OR (wp_16_posts.post_content LIKE '%rosszkor233%'))) AND wp_16_posts.post_type = 'post' AND ((wp_16_posts.post_status = 'publish')) ORDER BY wp_16_posts.post_date DESC LIMIT 0, 8