get_posts query matches too many results

Question

I have a query inside a function that is returning matches that i don't want, for example when the $id=116 it is also returning results where the meta_key 'funds_id' is 11687.

 public function list_related_docs($id){

    $docs_args = array(
        'post_type'     => 'publication',
        'post_status'   => 'publish',
        'posts_per_page'=> -1,
        'orderby'   => 'meta_value_num title',
        'order'     => 'ASC',
        'meta_key'  => 'fund_list_order',
        'limit'     => 4,
        'suppress_filters' => 0,
        'meta_query'    => array(
                                'relation'  => 'AND',
                                                array(
                                                    'key' => 'funds_id',
                                                    'value' => $id,
                                                    'compare' => 'LIKE'
                                                ),
                                                array(
                                                    'key' => 'fund_list_order',
                                                    'compare' => 'EXISTS',
                                                )
                                            )
        );
    $docs_posts = get_posts($docs_args);

   // more stuff
}

I've tried using 'compare' => '=' , but that doesn't return any results.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Well, you need to include the type comparison, or alphanumeric comparison is applied here.

In this case, you should add 'type' => 'numeric'.

Using Your Class Function

<?php
public function list_related_docs($id){

            $docs_args = array(
                    'post_type'     => 'publication',
                    'post_status'   => 'publish',
                    'posts_per_page'=> -1,
                    'orderby'   => 'meta_value_num title',
                    'order'     => 'ASC',
                    'meta_key'  => 'fund_list_order',
                    'limit'     => 4,
                    'suppress_filters' => 0,
                    'meta_query'    => array(
                        'relation'  => 'AND',
                            array(
                                'key' => 'funds_id',
                                'value' => $id,
                                'compare' => '=',
                                'type' => 'numeric',
                            ),
                            array(
                                'key' => 'fund_list_order',
                                'compare' => 'EXISTS',
                            )
                        )
                    );
            $docs_posts = get_posts($docs_args);
            // more stuff
}

Answer 2

A search through the plugin your code is based on indicates everything in your question is your own modifications.

The problem you face is that you're serialising PHP arrays and storing them in post meta, then attempting to run queries on them. This does not work, and never will work.

The example value you provided a:1:{i:0;s:3:"11687";} is equivalent to array( 11687 ). Instead of storing an array containing a single value, you should just store the number. If you need to store multiple numbers, you can have multiple post meta with the same key, or store them as a list in a separate post meta. But if you want to be able to run comparisons in SQL, or match against values, you can't use serialised data.

Once the data is stored as a number, not a serialised object, the answer Courtney gave will work. However Courtneys answer reasonably assumes it is a number not a serialised PHP string, as most other people assumed, hence why it did not work for you initially.

If you're using the ID purely for classification purposes, perhaps you could instead:

• Set the post parent
• Use a custom taxonomy where the ID is the term name

Otherwise, it is a general truism when working with databases that you don't store serialised structures in tables, especially if you then want to do queries on their contents.