Problem when try to add ++1 for user meta

Question

This is my code:

$user_user_count = get_user_meta( "_user_count", $user_id );
$user_user_count =  ( isset( $user_user_count ) && is_numeric( $user_user_count ) ) ? $user_user_count : 0;
update_user_meta( $user_id, "_user_count", ++$user_user_count );

When I do the action, it adds the meta successfully with 1. The issue when trying to do the action again is that: it's not changed to 2, it's still 1.

Answer 1

The problem here is twofold:

• the ++ operator is applied on an array.
• the user id and the meta key need to be swapped in get_user_meta()

So use get_user_meta( $user_id, "_user_count", true ); to get user meta.

Note that the third input parameter is false by default and an array is returned. Setting it to true, returns a single value instead.