Order by meta_key where meta_value is NUMBER

I solved this problem on its own – just add the line

if (strpos($orderby,’meta_value’) && $q[‘meta_key’] == ‘price’) {$orderby = str_replace(‘meta_value’,’meta_value+0′,$orderby);} else {}

in wp-includes/query.php (position 2240). The key part here, a string meta_value+0, which forces MySQL to perceive the data as the number of.

Ho thanks, work fine

There were some slight changes in WordPress version 2.8.4. Below are the changes I made to make this work for NUMBERS. Stepasyuk you have it exactly right, the way for mysql to return a NUMBER value is to add 0 to the query. The following is what I did, so that it plays nice with pagenavi code, and i presume all plugin code…

I used query_posts(); to order my posts by meta_key and meta_value ‘value-pairs’. In this example, it works for page view plugins.

query_posts('meta_key=views&orderby=meta_value_number&order=DESC');
Then use the LOOP as normal…

inside query.php I did the following:

goto line ~2035, add below – $allowed_keys[] = 'meta_value_number';

goto line ~2057, after break; add below –
'meta_value_number':
$orderby = "$wpdb->postmeta.meta_value+0";
break;

thats it! Now you can order posts by meta_value NUMBERS!!! YAY!!

Note to WordPress: You may want to consider adding this functionality by default…

@gabrieljones / @stepasyuk – I ran into this exact problem and implemented the meta_value_number (+0) solution. EXCELLENT, it is working perfectly. I agree that this functionality should be added to the WordPress core. +100

gabrieljones, thanks for the hack….it worked perfectly and saved me tons of time!

Anybody figure out a way to do this without having to hack the core files? Possibly by adding some code to the functions.php file, maybe?

It solved my great headache. Thanks a lot for the solution.

In 2.9.1 you need to add:

$allowed_keys[] = 'meta_value_number'; on line 2005

and

case 'meta_value_number':
$orderby = "$wpdb->postmeta.meta_value+0";
break;

on line 2032 in wp-includes/query.php to get this to work ??

thanks for your original answer gabriel, it really helped!

Hi, I have WP 2.7 and have to sort posts by price in required categories. I have template pages which show posts from those categories. I tested Stepasyuk’s code but it didn’t work for me, then I tested something of my own: added `query_posts(‘cat=categoryID&meta_key=price&orderby=m
eta_value_number&order=DESC&showposts=’.$limit.’&pag
ed=’ . $paged); ` to one of my template pages, but it didn’t work too. Can anyone help, please? I’m a newbie in programming and php…

My problem has been solved!

This worked perfectly.

I have a couple of questions:

1- Is there a way to do what james-mountford described without modifying the query.php file? IE – the functions.php file of a theme?

2- Anyone know if meta_value_number will be auto supported in future versions of WP?

Thanks,
John

Hi, I recently submitted a patch for this and it’s been committed to trunk so should appear shortly – no more need to hack the core ??

meta_value_num https://core.trac.www.ads-software.com/ticket/10649

cant wait to see it in next wordpress version..

Anyone have any ideas about how to overcome this problem using a SELECT query. I’ve tried the CAST AS function with no luck.

i’m on WP 2.9.2 and it doesn’t seem to work here….

i use this (new WP) query:

cat=-1,-24&showposts=5&meta_key=views&orderby=meta_value&order=desc&monthnum=4

and then use the loop (not a foreach)

example: https://documentingstyle.com/?theme=Code (top, center, most read items)