Can I access a post meta field before the loop?

Question

If I call the following function (on a page template, e.g. page-home.php) before the loop, nothing is returned. If I call it during or after the loop, the expected values are returned. Is there a way to access these meta fields before the loop runs?

function home_content() {
    global $post;
    $headline = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'top-headline', true);
    $body = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'top-body', true);
    $return = '<h4>' . $headline . '</h4>';
    $return .= '<p>' . $body . '</p>';
    echo $return;
}

Answer 1

You can get it by calling global $wp_query and assigning post->ID to a variable.

<?php

global $wp_query;
$postid = $wp_query->post->ID;
echo get_post_meta($postid, 'top-headline', true);

?>