get_post query where posts don’t have a specific meta_key

try:

$myposts = get_posts('category=3&meta_key=feature-sidebar&meta_value!=true');

Might not work but != means does not equal. So it might work *shrugs*.

@ jimmyt1988
Thanks. I’ve tried it and it doesn’t appear to be working. It still shows the posts with the meta_key “feature-sidebar”.

Can you refer to this:

https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/319418?replies=15

I had a good read through it, It’s a little over my head. I hope that the above post triggers others to respond or yourself to understand.

Sorry jimmyt1988 but that topic has nothing to do with mine so I won’t refer.
Anyhow I found out how to do it with sql:

$querystr = "
	SELECT ID, post_title, post_content FROM $wpdb->posts
	LEFT JOIN $wpdb->term_relationships ON ($wpdb->posts.ID = $wpdb->term_relationships.object_id)
	LEFT JOIN $wpdb->term_taxonomy ON ($wpdb->term_relationships.term_taxonomy_id = $wpdb->term_taxonomy.term_taxonomy_id)
	WHERE not exists ( SELECT * FROM $wpdb->postmeta WHERE ($wpdb->postmeta.post_id = $wpdb->posts.ID) AND meta_key = 'feature-sidebar')
	AND (post_status = 'publish' OR post_status = 'static')
	AND $wpdb->term_taxonomy.taxonomy = 'category'
	AND $wpdb->term_taxonomy.term_id = 3
";
$myposts= $wpdb->get_results($querystr);

Should I make this post resolved now? I’m hoping on a cleaner solution (or a better sql query).

Ah, sorry If I wasted your time. I’m glad you found it !!! In fact, you helped me in the end. Cheers!

That solution is good. I reckon there is a quicker one. Wait till one of the gurus come on. They might give u a 2 liner hehe. Good luck in future.

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I have a similar problem. So I’m wondering if anyone has a clean solution to this problem?

OK, I figured out how to solve this a bit more elegantly. Add these codes to wp-content/themes/[theme-directory]/functions.php

add_filter('query_vars', 'metakey_queryvars' );
function metakey_queryvars( $qvars )
{
  $qvars[] = 'not_meta_key';
  return $qvars;
}

add_filter('posts_where', 'metakey_where' );
function metakey_where( $where )
{
    global $wp_query;
    global $wpdb;

    if( isset( $wp_query->query_vars['not_meta_key'] )) {
       $where .= $wpdb->prepare(" AND $wpdb->posts.ID NOT IN ( SELECT post_id FROM $wpdb->postmeta WHERE ($wpdb->postmeta.post_id = $wpdb->posts.ID) AND meta_key = %s) ", $wp_query->query_vars['not_meta_key']);
    }

    return $where;
}

What the above codes do is adding a custom parameter called ‘not_meta_key’. So now you can do this:

$myposts = get_posts('category=3&not_meta_key=feature-sidebar');