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WordPress sort posts by custom field

Hello Experts,

I am trying to sort WP posts by a custom filed which is a date field.
For some reason it does not work. Can anyone help please?

$parent_id = $posts[0]->ID;
$args=array(
  'post_parent' => $parent_id,
  'post_type' => 'page',
  'post_status' => 'publish',
  'posts_per_page' => -1,
  'caller_get_posts'=> 1 ,
  'order'=> 'ASC',
  'orderby'=>'meta_value&meta_key=past_event_date'  
);

$my_query = null;
$my_query = new WP_Query($args);
    if( $my_query->have_posts() ) {
        while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post();
           $event_date = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'event_date', true);
           $display_event_date = date('dS F Y', strtotime(get_post_meta($post->ID, "event_date", true)));  
          $event_title = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'event_title', true);

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Jason C. Levine

How is the date stored in meta? As a string e.g. "01/01/2012"?

Refael

ASKER

Hi jason1178,

Thank you. The format is stored like so "4/20/2012".

Refael

ASKER

Hi jason1178,
I replied to your question yesterdays . Is there a solution? Can you help?

Jason C. Levine

That format can't be sorted like a string would be and if these are stored in meta, they are simple strings.

10/1/2099 would come before 4/20/2012 because of the leading 1. You either need to format the dates differently so they sort better or switch up what you are doing so you write dates to a date data type.

Refael

ASKER

Hi jason1178,

Can you give me an example? is there a way to print the date in this format but let it sort in the format it stores in the database?

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Jason C. Levine

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Refael

ASKER

Hi Jason1178
Thank you. i simply changed the format to "d.m.y" and it solved it.