Query Posts, order by meta value

Question

I've read a lot, tried a lot more, but can't get what I want: I have custom post types, which I want to order in DESC, orderby its meta value:

The complete query with its arguments:

wp_reset_query();
$args = array(
            'meta_key'          => 'completeness',
            'order_by'          => 'meta_value_num',
            'posts_per_page'    => -1,
            'order'             => 'DESC',
            'post_type'         => 'datensatz',
            'post_status'       => 'draft'
        );
$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );
if ( $the_query -> have_posts() ):
    while ( $the_query -> have_posts()) : 
        $the_query -> the_post();
        global $post;
        echo get_the_title().':'.get_post_meta( $post->ID, "completeness", TRUE ).'<br/>';
    endwhile;
endif;
wp_reset_query();

This query does not work. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have just had a look at the last db query by $wpdb->last_query and got this:

 "SELECT post_id, meta_key, meta_value FROM wp_postmeta WHERE post_id IN (206,200,199,198,197,[..]) ORDER BY meta_id ASC" 

So my WP query MUST be wrong...

Answer 1

Your query seems fine but there are couple of issues. Instead of your code (from wp_reset_query(); to wp_reset_query();) use following code and let us know what is the output.

$new_args = array(
    'post_type'         => 'datensatz',
    'post_status'       => 'draft',
    'posts_per_page'    => -1,
    'meta_key'          => 'completeness',
    'orderby'          => 'meta_value_num',
    'order'             => 'DESC',
);

$my_new_query = new WP_Query( $new_args );

var_dump( $my_new_query->request );

EDIT

Now try this. This should also work.

$new_args = array(
    'post_type'         => 'datensatz',
    'post_status'       => 'draft',
    'posts_per_page'    => -1,
    'meta_key'          => 'completeness',
    'orderby'          => 'meta_value_num',
    'order'             => 'DESC',
);

$my_new_query = new WP_Query( $new_args );

if ( $my_new_query -> have_posts() ) :
    while ( $my_new_query -> have_posts()) : $my_new_query -> the_post();
        echo get_the_title() . ': ' . get_post_meta( $post->ID, "completeness", TRUE ). '<br/>';
    endwhile;
endif;

wp_reset_postdata();