WP_Query with multiple meta fields filter?

Question

I have the following query but it is still returning results which include posts which have a meta value of 'deal'.

Any Clues on what am i missing in this

    $args = array(
    'post_type' => POST_TYPE,
    'meta_key' => 'is_hot',
    'meta_value' => '1',
    'meta_compare' => '=',
    'posts_per_page' => 20,
    'no_found_rows' => true,
    'suppress_filters' => false,
    'meta_key'     => 'offer_type',
    'meta_value'   => 'deal',
    'meta_compare' => 'NOT LIKE',
     ),

);

new WP_Query( $args );

Answer 1

You can not query for multiple meta fields using meta_key and meta_value parameters, you have to use meta_query parameter. Using multiple meta_key and meta_value parameters will use only the first found pair, that is why in your code the condition about "offer_type NOT LIKE deal" is ignored.

So, the correct query should be:

$args = array(

    'post_type'        => POST_TYPE,
    'posts_per_page'   => 20,
    'no_found_rows'    => true,
    'suppress_filters' => false,
    //Se the meta query
    'meta_query'       => array(
        //comparison between the inner meta fields conditionals
        'relation'    => 'AND',
        //meta field's first condition
        array(
            'key'          => 'is_hot',
            'value'        => '1',
            'compare'      => '=',
        ),
        //meta field's second condition
        array(
            'key'          => 'offer_type',
            'value'        => 'deal',
            //I think you really want != instead of NOT LIKE, fix me if I'm wrong
            //'compare'      => 'NOT LIKE',
            'compare'      => '!=',
        )
    ),

);

$query = new WP_Query( $args );

Answer 2

meta_compare possible values are

'!=', '>', '>=', '<', or ='. Default value is '='

if you want to use NOT LIKE you need to create a meta_query.

example

'meta_query' => array(                  //(array) - Custom field parameters (available with Version 3.1).
   array(
     'key' => 'color',                  //(string) - Custom field key.
     'value' => 'blue'                  //(string/array) - Custom field value (Note: Array support is limited to a compare value of 'IN', 'NOT IN', 'BETWEEN', or 'NOT BETWEEN')
     'type' => 'CHAR',                  //(string) - Custom field type. Possible values are 'NUMERIC', 'BINARY', 'CHAR', 'DATE', 'DATETIME', 'DECIMAL', 'SIGNED', 'TIME', 'UNSIGNED'. Default value is 'CHAR'.
     'compare' => '='                   //(string) - Operator to test. Possible values are '=', '!=', '>', '>=', '<', '<=', 'LIKE', 'NOT LIKE', 'IN', 'NOT IN', 'BETWEEN', 'NOT BETWEEN'. Default value is '='.
   ),
   array(
     'key' => 'price',
     'value' => array( 1,200 ),
     'compare' => 'NOT LIKE'
   ))