[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #36652: Use meta_value in a meta query to decide type format in SQL clause

[WordPress Trac]

#36652: Use meta_value in a meta query to decide type format in SQL clause
-------------------------+-----------------------------
 Reporter:  ericlewis    |      Owner:
     Type:  enhancement  |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |  Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Query        |    Version:
 Severity:  normal       |   Keywords:
  Focuses:               |
-------------------------+-----------------------------
 The SQL clause generated for a meta query
 [https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress/blob/4.5/wp-includes/class-wp-
 meta-query.php#L628 quotes the `meta_value` in a string].

 This means that if there's a post with a postmeta field for likes set to 2
 and you run the query looking for posts with 10 or more likes

 {{{
 #!php
 <?php
 $query = new WP_Query( array(
         'meta_query' => array(
                         array(
                                 'key' => 'likes',
                                 'value' => 10,
                                 'compare' => '>='
                         )
                 )
 ) );
 }}}

 the query will return the post with 2 likes. This is because the SQL is
 doing a string comparison, as both the column value and the compared-to
 value are strings.

 The fix for the developer is to supply a `type` parameter like `NUMERIC`
 in the meta query clause which coerces a numeric MySQL comparison.

 We could use the meta_value's type to decide the type format the value
 takes in the SQL clause, so that a query like this works as expected
 without the `type` parameter.

 This was [https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/27272#comment:13
 suggested] by @boone in #27272.

--
Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/36652>
WordPress Trac <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/>
WordPress publishing platform