advanced batch custom field editing

Hi Begin,

You could do this through the backend in the database itself. Just identify the table and the of the custom field in that table and run a SQL statement that would select and remove dollars from that field. Make sure you make a backup of the database before running any SQL commands on the database. Your statement would look something like this (fill in your appropriate Table Name and Field Name):

UPDATE TableName
SET CustomFieldName = replace(CustomFieldName, ‘dollars’, ”);

Hope this helps!

or try it with this in a page template file and load a page once.

<?php
$the_posts = get_posts('meta_key=price');
foreach ( $the_posts as $the_post  ) {
$price = trim(get_post_meta( $the_post->ID , 'price', true));
$price = intval(trim(preg_replace('/ dollars/','', $price)));
update_post_meta($the_post->ID , 'price', $price);
}
?>

as ChristiNi said make a backup of your database first.

Thank’s ChristiNi !

I did used keesiemeijer method because it seemed easier…
Thank’s keesiemeijer, your my hero today ??

But for some reason it only change the 4-5 first posts and not all the rest… ?!

Are you sure they are formatted the same: “20 dollars”, “20 dollar”, “20dollars”

Try changing this $the_posts = get_posts('meta_key=price'); to $the_posts = get_posts('meta_key=price&numberposts=-1');

Yes! that made it work for all of them!

Thank you very very much keesiemeijer !!!
You really saved me a lot of time today! Thank’s!

You’re welcome. Remove the lines from your page template.

Another question in the same subject…

I have another custom field in all of those 400 posts
that has a phone number.

Can I make that kind of a php code that says:
“go to all those posts, cut the forst three digits of the number
in that custom field and past them to a new custom field
and give it a name for the new custom field I want it to create for those
three digits” ?

Thank’s. I know I’m quite a hassle ??

Hi again Begin,

I’m happy to help. You would first want to create your new field in your database to accept the input from the other custom field. Then you could run a SQL query to look for that certain number of characters in that string, remove them and insert them into the new field. You could code that using PHP like keesiemeijer did above. Of course, don’t forget to backup your database before making any changes.

Hi ChristiNi! Thank you very much, I just don’t really know how to “code” ??

Can you give me a php code that does that “take from this field to that field” action?

Thank’s!!!

Make a backup of the database first and try it with this

<?php
$metakey = 'number';
$new_meta_key = 'threedigits';

$the_posts = get_posts('meta_key='.$metakey.'&numberposts=-1');
foreach ( $the_posts as $the_post  ) {
$number = trim(get_post_meta( $the_post->ID , $metakey, true));
preg_match('/^[0-9]{3}/', $number, $matches);
if(is_array($matches) && !empty($matches)) {
update_post_meta($the_post->ID , $new_meta_key, $matches[0]);
}
}
?>

Change the variable $metakey to the telephone number metakey name you already have.
And change the variable $new_meta_key to the new metakey name you want to use for the three digits.

Thank’s again keesiemeijer!

It did copy the 3 digits to the new custom field,
but didn’t delete them from the phone custom field… ?!

Btw – I need to delete a “-” from that phone custom field
(The number is in a format like that: 052-3454435,
so I need to delete all the “052-” part…)

Make a backup of the database first and try it with this

<?php
$metakey = 'number';

$the_posts = get_posts('meta_key='.$metakey.'&numberposts=-1');
foreach ( $the_posts as $the_post  ) {
$number = trim(get_post_meta( $the_post->ID , $metakey, true));
preg_match('/^[0-9]{3}-/', $number, $matches);
if(is_array($matches) && !empty($matches)) {
$deleted_digits = preg_replace('/^[0-9]{3}-/','',$number);
update_post_meta($the_post->ID , $metakey , $deleted_digits);
}
}
?>

Change the variable $metakey to the telephone number metakey name you already have.

What does that code suppose to do?

Get rid of the first three digits and a “-“.
if the phone custom field is “052-3454435” it will be updated to “3454435”

Yay! It Did! Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!