get_fields() not working with fields named as number

• roby94

• February 19, 2018 at 8:35 am

Hi there,

I’m using the PRO version of ACF 5.6.8 on WP 4.9.4 and I have some problems using get_fields($post->ID) with fields called with numbers (for example 1, 2, 3), because it return false instead of an array.
While using get_field(‘1’, $post->ID) it works as expeted.

Below the json exported from ACF:

[
    {
        "key": "group_5a89d694c5c66",
        "title": "Home",
        "fields": [
            {
                "key": "field_5a89d69fdcf4f",
                "label": "1",
                "name": "",
                "type": "tab",
                "instructions": "",
                "required": 0,
                "conditional_logic": 0,
                "wrapper": {
                    "width": "",
                    "class": "",
                    "id": ""
                },
                "placement": "top",
                "endpoint": 0
            },
            {
                "key": "field_5a89d6e453faa",
                "label": "1",
                "name": "1",
                "type": "group",
                "instructions": "",
                "required": 0,
                "conditional_logic": 0,
                "wrapper": {
                    "width": "",
                    "class": "",
                    "id": ""
                },
                "layout": "block",
                "sub_fields": [
                    {
                        "key": "field_5a89d6e453fab",
                        "label": "Title",
                        "name": "title",
                        "type": "text",
                        "instructions": "",
                        "required": 1,
                        "conditional_logic": 0,
                        "wrapper": {
                            "width": "",
                            "class": "",
                            "id": ""
                        },
                        "default_value": "",
                        "placeholder": "",
                        "prepend": "",
                        "append": "",
                        "maxlength": ""
                    },
                    {
                        "key": "field_5a89d70259e4d",
                        "label": "Description",
                        "name": "description",
                        "type": "wysiwyg",
                        "instructions": "",
                        "required": 1,
                        "conditional_logic": 0,
                        "wrapper": {
                            "width": "",
                            "class": "",
                            "id": ""
                        },
                        "default_value": "",
                        "tabs": "all",
                        "toolbar": "basic",
                        "media_upload": 0,
                        "delay": 0
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "key": "field_5a89d6b6dcf50",
                "label": "2",
                "name": "",
                "type": "tab",
                "instructions": "",
                "required": 0,
                "conditional_logic": 0,
                "wrapper": {
                    "width": "",
                    "class": "",
                    "id": ""
                },
                "placement": "top",
                "endpoint": 0
            },
            {
                "key": "field_5a89d6c353fa8",
                "label": "2",
                "name": "2",
                "type": "group",
                "instructions": "",
                "required": 0,
                "conditional_logic": 0,
                "wrapper": {
                    "width": "",
                    "class": "",
                    "id": ""
                },
                "layout": "block",
                "sub_fields": [
                    {
                        "key": "field_5a89d6d353fa9",
                        "label": "Title",
                        "name": "title",
                        "type": "text",
                        "instructions": "",
                        "required": 1,
                        "conditional_logic": 0,
                        "wrapper": {
                            "width": "",
                            "class": "",
                            "id": ""
                        },
                        "default_value": "",
                        "placeholder": "",
                        "prepend": "",
                        "append": "",
                        "maxlength": ""
                    }
                ]
            }
        ],
        "location": [
            [
                {
                    "param": "page_template",
                    "operator": "==",
                    "value": "page-templates\/home.php"
                }
            ]
        ],
        "menu_order": 0,
        "position": "normal",
        "style": "default",
        "label_placement": "top",
        "instruction_placement": "label",
        "hide_on_screen": "",
        "active": 1,
        "description": ""
    }
]

At the moment I’ve solved using different name (for example first instead of 1).

Thank you,
Roberto

• John Huebner

• February 19, 2018 at 11:58 pm

The short answer: Field names cannot be numbers.

The long answer:

I suspect that your call to get_fields() when you have fields with numbers as names is causing a php error.

ACF uses the equivalent of get_post_meta($post_id) a core WP function to get all the meta values. This returns an array of meta_key => meta_value pairs. It then loops through these results using

foreach( $meta as $k => $v ) {

This is a standard way to loop through an array where you need the index and value. This creates sets $k to 1, which is then translated into the varialble $1. In PHP, variables that start with a number are syntax errors.