WP Query Returning All Posts

Question

I have a custom WP query that is returning every post, instead of just the ones being specified by the query. I can't seem to find anything wrong with the code, so I must be missing something:

//Process incoming variable
if(!empty($_REQUEST['region'])){
     $region = $_REQUEST['region'];
 } else {
     $region = NULL;
 }
if (empty($region)) {
    echo "No region selected";

//Search Region table to retrieve array of country names
}else{
    $regionresult = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM gallery_regions WHERE region='$region'") or die(mysql_error());
    $num_rows = mysql_num_rows($regionresult);
    if (!$regionresult) {
    $message  = 'Invalid query: ' . mysql_error() . "\n";
    $message .= 'Whole query: ' . $query;
    die($message);
}

// Process search reults and format array contents for WP Query
$country_search_array = array();
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($regionresult)){
    $country_search_array[] = $row['country']; 
}
$country_search = "'".implode("','", $country_search_array)."'";

//Build WP query    
$args = array(
    'posts_per_page' => '-1',
    'cat' => '4',
    'meta_query' => array(
        array(
        'meta_key' => 'Country-2',
        'meta_value' => $country_search,
        'compare' => '='
        )
    )
);
$country_query = new WP_Query( $args );

//Some output for troubleshooting purposes
$num = $country_query->post_count;
print_r ($country_search); echo "<br><br>";
print_r ($num);echo " Posts Returned.<br><br>";

// The Loop
while ( $country_query->have_posts() ) : $country_query->the_post();
    the_title(); echo"<br>";
endwhile;

// Reset Everything
wp_reset_postdata();
wp_reset_query();
mysql_free_result($regionresult);

If this looks familiar, it's because I've posted other questions related to this project, so I apologize if it seems repetitious. This is the last hurdle, though.

As always, any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

ty

UPDATE - Here is the actual query, as it is generated by print_r:

WP_Query Object
(
    [query_vars] => Array
        (
            [posts_per_page] => -1
            [cat] => 4
            [meta_query] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [meta_key] => Country
                            [meta_value] => 'Algeria','Angola','Benin','Botswana','Burkina Faso','Burundi','Cape Verde','Central African Republic','Chad','Comoros','Congo','Ivory Coast','Djibouti','Egypt','Eritrea','Ethiopia','Gabon','Gambia','Ghana','Kenya','Lesotho','Liberia','Libya','Madagascar','Malawi','Mauritania','Mauritius','Morocco','Mozambique','Nambia','Niger','Nigeria','Reunion','Rwanda','Sao Tome & Principe','Senegal','Seychelles','Sierra Leone','Somalia','South Africa','Sudan','Swaziland','Tanzania','Togo','Tunisia','Uganda','Zaire','Zambia','Zimbabwe'
                            [compare] => IN
                        )

                )

            [error] => 
            [m] => 0
            [p] => 0
            [post_parent] => 
            [subpost] => 
            [subpost_id] => 
            [attachment] => 
            [attachment_id] => 0
            [name] => 
            [static] => 
            [pagename] => 
            [page_id] => 0
            [second] => 
            [minute] => 
            [hour] => 
            [day] => 0
            [monthnum] => 0
            [year] => 0
            [w] => 0
            [category_name] => gallery
            [tag] => 
            [tag_id] => 
            [author_name] => 
            [feed] => 
            [tb] => 
            [paged] => 0
            [comments_popup] => 
            [meta_key] => 
            [meta_value] => 
            [preview] => 
            [s] => 
            [sentence] => 
            [fields] => 
            [category__in] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 4
                )

            [category__not_in] => Array
                (
                )

            [category__and] => Array
                (
                )

            [post__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [post__not_in] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag__not_in] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag__and] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag_slug__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag_slug__and] => Array
                (
                )

            [ignore_sticky_posts] => 
            [suppress_filters] => 
            [cache_results] => 1
            [update_post_term_cache] => 1
            [update_post_meta_cache] => 1
            [post_type] => 
            [nopaging] => 1
            [comments_per_page] => 50
            [no_found_rows] => 
            [order] => DESC
        )

    [tax_query] => WP_Tax_Query Object
        (
            [queries] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [taxonomy] => category
                            [terms] => Array
                                (
                                    [0] => 4
                                )

                            [include_children] => 
                            [field] => term_id
                            [operator] => IN
                        )

                )

            [relation] => AND
        )

    [meta_query] => WP_Meta_Query Object
        (
            [queries] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [meta_key] => Country
                            [meta_value] => 'Algeria','Angola','Benin','Botswana','Burkina Faso','Burundi','Cape Verde','Central African Republic','Chad','Comoros','Congo','Ivory Coast','Djibouti','Egypt','Eritrea','Ethiopia','Gabon','Gambia','Ghana','Kenya','Lesotho','Liberia','Libya','Madagascar','Malawi','Mauritania','Mauritius','Morocco','Mozambique','Nambia','Niger','Nigeria','Reunion','Rwanda','Sao Tome & Principe','Senegal','Seychelles','Sierra Leone','Somalia','South Africa','Sudan','Swaziland','Tanzania','Togo','Tunisia','Uganda','Zaire','Zambia','Zimbabwe'
                            [compare] => IN
                        )

                )

            [relation] => AND
        )

    [post_count] => 1047
    [current_post] => -1
    [in_the_loop] => 
    [comment_count] => 0
    [current_comment] => -1
    [found_posts] => 0
    [max_num_pages] => 0
    [max_num_comment_pages] => 0
    [is_single] => 
    [is_preview] => 
    [is_page] => 
    [is_archive] => 1
    [is_date] => 
    [is_year] => 
    [is_month] => 
    [is_day] => 
    [is_time] => 
    [is_author] => 
    [is_category] => 1
    [is_tag] => 
    [is_tax] => 
    [is_search] => 
    [is_feed] => 
    [is_comment_feed] => 
    [is_trackback] => 
    [is_home] => 
    [is_404] => 
    [is_comments_popup] => 
    [is_paged] => 
    [is_admin] => 
    [is_attachment] => 
    [is_singular] => 
    [is_robots] => 
    [is_posts_page] => 
    [is_post_type_archive] => 
    [query_vars_hash] => 859f71690a2d92bf36791d7332bf2dbc
    [query_vars_changed] => 
    [thumbnails_cached] => 
    [query] => Array
        (
            [posts_per_page] => -1
            [cat] => 4
            [meta_query] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [meta_key] => Country
                            [meta_value] => 'Algeria','Angola','Benin','Botswana','Burkina Faso','Burundi','Cape Verde','Central African Republic','Chad','Comoros','Congo','Ivory Coast','Djibouti','Egypt','Eritrea','Ethiopia','Gabon','Gambia','Ghana','Kenya','Lesotho','Liberia','Libya','Madagascar','Malawi','Mauritania','Mauritius','Morocco','Mozambique','Nambia','Niger','Nigeria','Reunion','Rwanda','Sao Tome & Principe','Senegal','Seychelles','Sierra Leone','Somalia','South Africa','Sudan','Swaziland','Tanzania','Togo','Tunisia','Uganda','Zaire','Zambia','Zimbabwe'
                            [compare] => IN
                        )

                )

        )

    [request] =>  SELECT   alere_posts.* FROM alere_posts  INNER JOIN alere_term_relationships ON (alere_posts.ID = alere_term_relationships.object_id) WHERE 1=1  AND ( alere_term_relationships.term_taxonomy_id IN (4) ) AND alere_posts.post_type = 'post' AND (alere_posts.post_status = 'publish' OR alere_posts.post_status = 'private') GROUP BY alere_posts.ID ORDER BY alere_posts.post_date DESC 

[posts] => Array (…

Answer 1

I think you're confusing old meta parameters with new meta_query parameters. meta_key should be just key and meta_value should be just value. Refer to WP_Query in Codex for correct syntax.

Also, print_r( $country_query ); will show you the actual SQL query being sent to the database and will show you where you're going wrong.

Answer 2

Thanks for all of the help!

It tured out to be a combination of issues:

1. Instead of imploding the $country_search_array, it needs to be added as is to the query.
2. Since it's an array, we can't use the '=' for the compare value. It needs to be 'IN'

I couldn't have figured it out without the assistance I received here. Again, thanks!