Return a single custom post from multiple meta queries

Question

I'm currently working on a widget which returns a single random featured property on a website but I'm having some trouble with my WP_Query arguments.

In the backend I have 2 checkbox meta fields "featured" and "hidden". I want to return a post which is has the "featured" field checked and the "hidden" field unchecked. My query is as follows:

$query_args = array(
  'posts_per_page' => '1',
  'orderby' => 'rand',
  'post_type' => 'nc_property',
  'meta_query' => array(
    array(
      'key' => 'nc_featured',
      'value' => 'on',
      'compare' => '='
    ),
    array(
      'key' => 'nc_hidden',
      'value' => 'on',
      'compare' => '!='
    )
  )
);

The query returns a random featured property if I remove the second array so the problem lies with my nc_hidden meta query but I'm not seeing it.

What's the correct way to check for an unchecked meta value?

Cheers.

Answer 1

The problem was that the nc_hidden met property did not exist if it was not checked so there was essentially no value to query against.

I swapped nc_hidden from a checkbox to a select and updated my query as required. The working query is now as follows:

$query_args = array(
  'posts_per_page' => '1',
  'orderby' => 'rand',
  'post_type' => 'nc_property',
  'meta_query' => array(
    array(
      'key' => 'nc_featured',
      'value' => 'on',
      'compare' => '='
    ),
    array(
      'key' => 'nc_hidden',
      'value' => 'Visible',
      'compare' => '='
    )
  )
);

Thanks @Milo for pointing me in the right direction.