get_post_meta returns 0

Question

I am trying to get metadata for a post (of custom post type). I had a look in the database, and the table "wp_postmeta" holds a row with "post_id" = 65, "meta_key" = "name_text" and "meta_value" = "Lars Åkerkvist".

I am trying to fetch that value, Lars Åkerkvist, using get_post_meta as below

get_post_meta(65,"name_text",true)

But it always returns a 0. What am i doing wrong here?

Answer 1

Change $single back to false, e.g.:

<?php $name_text = get_post_meta( 65, 'name_text' ); ?>

Why?

If set to true then the function will return a single result, as a string. If false, or not set, then the function returns an array of the custom fields. This is not intuitive. For example, if you fetch a serialized array with this method you want $single to be true to actually get an unserialized array back. If you pass in false, or leave it out, you will have an array of one, and the value at index 0 will be the serialized string.

You want to return the array, and then use $name_text[0].