How to use germ_terms() with meta_query for ACF Taxonomy field?

• iamrobertandrews

• June 6, 2019 at 7:08 am

I have a custom taxonomy, Events (“event”).

Through ACF, this also haas a Taxonomy field, “Topic”, linking it to a secondary taxonomy, Topic (“topic”).

I want to get_terms() for all Events terms which bear the specific “Topic” term “Media”, which happens to have term ID 422.

I know get_terms() can take meta_query, but I don’t understand how to properly get what I need.

Both of these return no results…

      'meta_query' => array(
        array(
          'key'     => 'Topic',
          'value'   => '422',
        )
      )

      'meta_query' => array(
        array(
          'key'     => 'Topic',
          'value'   => 422,
        )
      )

FYI, my “Topic” Taxonomy ACF field “Return Value” is set to “Term ID”, which is why I attempted passing ‘422’.

As it happens, to test, when I…

– do a get_terms() without meta_query
– then get_term_meta() to get the “Topic” of the terms
– then print out the result…

… I see a formulation like Array ( [0] => Array ( [0] => 422 ) )

That’s where the 422 is buried.

• iamrobertandrews

• June 7, 2019 at 1:48 am

Answer – the correct formulation is…

      'meta_query' => array(
        array(
          'key'     => 'Topic',
          'value'   => "12057",
          'compare' => 'LIKE'
        )
      )

In full:

    $args = array(
      'taxonomy' => 'event',
      // 'order' => 'ASC',
      'hide_empty' => false,
      'hierarchical' => true,
      // 'parent' => 0,

      'meta_query' => array(
        array(
          'key'     => 'Topic',
          'value'   => "12057",
          'compare' => 'LIKE'
        )
      )

    );

    $events = get_terms( $args );

Specifically, it seems 'compare' => 'LIKE' needs to be present.

Initially, I had thought the solution was to use double quotes on the value, which I inferred from @hube2’s response to another question.

But actually it works with single or double. The clincher is the present of 'compare' => 'LIKE'.