In my site i need to store 200 extra data for each user. Now i know about the user meta option. But is it a good way to save 200extra field for each user?
Or should i create an extra table in the database to do the work.
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I would probably create a new table. It also depends on how often you will need to access the data.– Brooke.Commented Mar 22, 2013 at 4:52
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do you need to query users on the data, i.e. get users based on the value of a specific piece of extra data? any data that doesn't need to used in a query can be stored as array within a single field– MiloCommented Mar 22, 2013 at 5:00
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I only need to get data of a user. No need to do any query using that data. How an array can be saved in field? Can you give me some example url?– Choudhury A. M.Commented Mar 22, 2013 at 5:35
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1 Answer
You can store multiple pieces of data within a single field by passing an array rather than a string:
$user_data = array(
'favorite_color' => 'blue',
'favorite_animal' => 'cat',
'favorite_city' => 'paris'
);
update_user_meta( $user_id, 'user_data', $user_data );
WordPress will serialize this data for you on save, and unserialize back into an array when it is retrieved:
$user_data = get_user_meta( $user_id, 'user_data', true );
echo $user_data['favorite_color'];
The caveat is that it will actually result in a slightly larger amount of data, but it will decrease the number of rows consumed by the data.
