Is it safe to use the same field name in different field groups

• Vasili

• June 30, 2016 at 10:14 pm

Hi guys,

I have three field groups, each group is added to a different custom widget. Each group have different fields, but also same fields such as Title and Intro Text.

For example, the name of title and text fields in all field groups are my_widget_title and my_widget_text.

Is it safe to use such method or is it better to give different names in each field group?

Thank you.

• James

• July 1, 2016 at 3:52 pm

Hi @vasili

It should be safe. But, to avoid any confusion in the future, I suggest you to use a different name instead.

Thanks 🙂

• Vasili

• July 1, 2016 at 11:03 pm

@acf-support

Hi James,

Thank you for your reply.

By “confusion” you mean the human factor, not DB conflicts?

• James

• July 2, 2016 at 10:28 am

Hi @vasili

ACF will use field keys to save the data in the database. And because you use the fields in widgets, I believe retrieving the value won’t be an issue either because you need to provide the widget IDs. So yes, it’s more of a human factor.

I hope this makes sense 🙂

• Vasili

• July 3, 2016 at 9:59 am

@acf-support

Hi James,

This makes sense and more than this, it seems so obvious and simple. Really appreciate your help. Thank you.

• GigiSan

• April 3, 2019 at 1:45 am

@acf-support forgive me for resuming an old post, but it would seem the fields get confused script-wise if they have the same name.

I encountered the need to copy all ACF fields from a group_a of a post type type_a to a group_b of a post type type_b due to an analysis mistake.

So, let’s consider this code snippet

        if ($tecnologie = get_field('tecnologie', $post->ID)) {
            $tecnologie_new = '<ul>';
            foreach ($tecnologie as $tecnologia) {
                $tecnologie_new .= '<li>';
                $tecnologie_new .= $tecnologia['tecnologia'];
                $tecnologie_new .= '</li>';
            }
            $tecnologie_new .= '</ul>';
            update_field('tecnologie', $tecnologie_new, $new_id);
        }

Here, $post is of type type_a and $new_id is the ID of a new post I created of type type_b. In both field groups there’s a field called tecnologie, which is a Repeater in the first type and a WYSIWYG Editor in the second. I basically need to turn the repeated rows into a <ul> tag.

Post type_a field group, field tecnologie:

Post type_b field group, field tecnologie:

The above script returns an error:
( ! ) Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in (…)\wp-content\plugins\advanced-custom-fields-pro\pro\fields\class-acf-field-repeater.php on line 844

Because the type of field the plugin considers is the Repeater, despite the required update is on the WYSIWYG.

• GigiSan

• April 3, 2019 at 1:48 am

@acf-support forgive me for resuming an old post, but it would seem the fields get confused script-wise if they have the same name.

I encountered the need to copy all ACF fields from a group_a of a post type type_a to a group_b of a post type type_b due to an analysis mistake.

So, let’s consider this code snippet

        if ($tecnologie = get_field('tecnologie', $post->ID)) {
            $tecnologie_new = '<ul>';
            foreach ($tecnologie as $tecnologia) {
                $tecnologie_new .= '<li>';
                $tecnologie_new .= $tecnologia['tecnologia'];
                $tecnologie_new .= '</li>';
            }
            $tecnologie_new .= '</ul>';
            update_field('tecnologie', $tecnologie_new, $new_id);
        }

Here, $post is of type type_a and $new_id is the ID of a new post I created of type type_b. In both field groups there’s a field called tecnologie, which is a Repeater in the first type and a WYSIWYG Editor in the second. I basically need to turn the repeated rows into a <ul> tag.

Post type_a field group, field tecnologie:

Post type_b field group, field tecnologie:

The above script returns an error:
( ! ) Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in (…)\wp-content\plugins\advanced-custom-fields-pro\pro\fields\class-acf-field-repeater.php on line 844

Because the type of field the plugin considers is the Repeater, despite the required update is on the WYSIWYG.

• jmp909

• May 18, 2020 at 10:06 pm

Not entirely

If you have a CF called “Hero CF” with a field “main_title”,
and a CF called “Intro CF” with a field “main_title”,
and then apply those both to a page/post, it can’t distinguish the fields.

(I believe updating the second field in the admin, will modify the first as well…since the field for both is still “main_title”)

In which case I think it’s probably better to give each CF a containing group (hero, intro) so you end up with fields eg “hero_main_title” and “intro_main_title” (but can still be accessed by “main_title” in code for that Group)

Anyone have better suggestion?

Thanks.