How to account for empty key values in wp_query?

Question

My goal is to remove posts from my wordpress based home/category pages after they are no longer topical.

I have an 'expire_date' custom field for each post where I enter the date I want them to drop off.

Then (with help from Sally CJ), I use wp_query to filter through the posts and filter out the expired posts:

$query_args['meta_query'] = array(
    array( // clause/query 1
        'key'     => 'expire_date',
        'value'   => date("Y-m-d"),
        'type'    => 'DATE',
        'compare' => '>=',
    )
);

That works great for the posts that have an entry in the 'expire_date' field... however, many posts don't - and apparently they are being filtered out to. They are not included in the results.

So how do I include those posts that don't have an entry?

I read through the wp_query doc and tried this - but the results is that none of the posts are displayed -

$query_args['meta_query'] = array(
    array( // clause/query 1
        'key'     => 'expire_date',
        'value'   => date("Y-m-d"),
        'type'    => 'DATE',
        'compare' => '>=',
    ),
            
    array(
        'relation' => 'OR',
        array(
            'key'     => 'expire_date',
            'compare' => 'NOT EXISTS'
        )
    )
            
);

clearly I am in over my head :) Any help appreciated!

Chris

Answer 1

how do I include those posts that don't have an entry?

You can include those posts (which do not have the expire_date field/meta) by adding a second clause with 'compare' => 'NOT EXISTS', and then set the relation to OR:

$query_args['meta_query'] = array(
    // the relation between the root clauses/queries; defaults to AND
    'relation' => 'OR',

    array( // root clause/query 1
        'key'     => 'expire_date',
        'value'   => date("Y-m-d"),
        'type'    => 'DATE',
        'compare' => '>=',
    ),

    array( // root clause/query 2
        'key'     => 'expire_date',
        'compare' => 'NOT EXISTS',
    ),
);

So actually, you just needed to remove lines 15 and 9 in the code in question.