Check if searched number is within the post meta value

Question

I wrote a function which search a list of properties by specify the number of guests. Each property have a specific number of guests, eg: 10, so if the user search as guests 5 the query should return that post, but my code wouldn't:

$guests_tax_array = array(
    'taxonomy' => 'property-guests',
    'field' => 'term_id',
    'terms' => array($guests), //Searched value from $_POST['guests']
    'compare' => 'IN'
);

Essentially, the query should check if 5 (searched value) is contained in 10 using the compare operator.

But the result is empty, is something wrong there?

Answer 1

Assuming your "property-guests" taxonomies have names like "1", "2", "3", etc.:

<?php
// Get the number of guests the visitor searched for
$requiredGuests = $_POST['guests'];
// Get all terms in the "property-guests" taxonomy
// (By default, this will only include terms that are assigned to something)
$allGuestNumbers = get_terms(array('taxonomy' => 'property-guests'));
// Create a variable to use in the args later
$queryNumbers = '';
// Determine which properties have enough room for the number of guests requested
foreach($allGuestNumbers as $guestNumber) {
    // Check if the number is greater than or equal to the number requested
    if($guestNumber->name >= $requiredGuests) {
        // If so, add to the variable for args, with a comma to separate the numbers
        $queryNumbers .= $guestNumber->name . ',';
    }
}
// Now, use the variable in the args
$guests_tax_array = array(
    'taxonomy' => 'property-guests',
    'field' => 'term_id',
    'terms' => $queryNumbers,
    'compare' => 'IN'
);
?>

If your "property-guests" taxonomies don't have digits as their names, you could use their slugs, or a substring of the name or slug - it just depends on how you set up the individual terms.