Separating future/past dates in two queries

• juliekuehl

• March 2, 2020 at 8:58 am

I have a custom field for events for their start date (‘even_date_start’) and want to display on an archive page a list of all the events separated into upcoming events (sorted ASC) and past events (sorted DESC). I have tried to create two queries, but I have only had success in getting the upcoming section to work as desired. With the code shared below the past events go to the ‘else’ fallback which displays a message and no events. I’m sure I’m missing something simple, but I am stumped as to what it is. I’ve tried several things and am sharing my code in it’s current state. Any suggestions or keen eyes welcome!

`
<?php
/**
*/
get_header();
?>

<section id=”primary” class=”content-area”>
<main id=”main” class=”site-main”>
<div id=”post-wrap”>

<h2>Upcoming Events</h2>

<?php

// get today’s date
$date_now = date( ‘Y-m-d’ );

// get posts
$posts = get_posts(array(
‘post_type’ => ‘events’,
‘posts_per_page’ => -1,
‘meta_key’ => ‘event_date_start’,
‘orderby’ => ‘meta_value’,
‘order’ => ‘ASC’,
‘compare’ => ‘>=’,
‘value’ => $date_now,
‘type’ => ‘DATETIME’,
));

if( $posts ): ?>

<ul class=”events-list”>

<?php foreach( $posts as $post ):

setup_postdata( $post )

?>
<li>
<div class=”entry-content”>
<?php the_field( ‘event_date_start’ ); ?>
<?php if( get_field( ‘event_date_end’ ) ):
echo ” – “;
the_field( ‘event_date_end’ );
endif; ?>
<br/>
<span class=”event-title”><?php the_title(); ?></span>
<br />
<?php the_field( ‘event_location’ ) ?>
</div>
</li>

<?php endforeach; ?>

</ul>

<?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

<? else: ?>

<p><?php _e( ‘No upcoming events are currently on the calendar.’ ); ?></p>

<?php endif; ?>

<hr />

<h2>Past Events</h2>

<?php

// get today’s date
$date_now = date( ‘Y-m-d’ );

// get posts
$past_args = array(
‘post_type’ => ‘events’,
‘posts_per_page’ => -1,
‘meta_key’ => ‘event_date_end’,
‘orderby’ => ‘meta_value’,
‘order’ => ‘DESC’,
‘compare’ => ‘<‘,
‘value’ => $date_now,
‘type’ => ‘DATETIME’,
);

$query_past = new WP_Query( $past_args );

if( $query_past->$posts ): ?>

<ul class=”events-list”>

<?php foreach( $query_past->$posts as $query_past->$post ):

setup_postdata( $query_past->$post )

?>
<li>
<div class=”entry-content”>
<?php the_field( ‘event_date_start’ ); ?>
<?php if( get_field( ‘event_date_end’ ) ):
echo ” – “;
the_field( ‘event_date_end’ );
endif; ?>
<br/>
<span class=”event-title”><?php the_title(); ?></span>
<br />
<?php the_field( ‘event_location’ ) ?>
</div>
</li>

<?php endforeach; ?>

</ul>

<?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

<? else: ?>

<p><?php _e( ‘No past events are currently on the calendar.’ ); ?></p>

<?php endif; ?>

</div>

</main><!– #main –>
</section><!– #primary –>

<?php get_footer(); ?>
`

• John Huebner

• March 15, 2020 at 4:32 am

What type of fields are your date fields? Date or Date/Time?

• juliekuehl

• March 17, 2020 at 11:19 pm

They are Date Picker fields.

• John Huebner

• March 17, 2020 at 11:54 pm

$date_now = date('Ymd');