WordPress meta query where key/value does not exist

Question

My custom post type order has a meta key 'status'. A post can have multiple statusses e.g. ordered, paid, completed.

I would like to query all unpaid orders. These don't have a meta key/value pair of status/paid.

I can query all paid orders with ...

array(
'key' => 'status',
'value' => 'paid',
'compare' => '=='
)

... it works

But when I try to query all unpaid orders with ...

array(
'key' => 'status',
'value' => 'paid',
'compare' => '!='
)

... WordPress also returns post which do have the status/paid pair, because they also have the status/ordered pair, which returns true.

Is there a way to fetch posts which don't have a certain meta_key / meta_value pair? Or should I write my own query using wpdb()?

Kind regards, Tom

Xhynk Xhynk · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-28T23:44:32

meta_query can take in multiple arrays, can you just do:

'meta_query' => array(
    array(
        'key' => 'status',
        'value' => 'paid',
        'compare' => '!=',
        //'compare' => 'NOT EXISTS', //Perhaps this instead?
    ),
    array(
        'key' => 'status',
        'value' => 'ordered',
        'compare' => '!=',
    )
)

Though reading your question it almost sounds like you want results that are status:ordered=true right?

WordPress meta query where key/value does not exist

1 Answers