Sort order of several ACF Fields

• kpurcell

• June 8, 2022 at 10:49 pm

I’m trying to sort on several field’s values. The two fields I would like to sort: builder_lot & builder_title.

It is working for the first one but need help understanding how to add the second sort option.

$builder_args = array(
‘post_type’ => ‘builders’,
‘posts_per_page’ => -1,
‘meta_key’ => ‘builder_lot’,
‘orderby’ => ‘meta_value’,
‘order’ => ‘ASC’
);

$builder_query = new WP_Query( $builder_args );

if ( $builder_query->have_posts() ) {
while ( $builder_query->have_posts() ) {
echo $builder_lot.’ – ‘.builder_title;
} // end while
} // end if

example:

builder_lots values like 4, 55, 60, etc.
builder_title values like ‘Builder Name 1’, ‘Builder Name 2’, ‘Builder Name 3’, etc.

Looking to sort both ASC with builder_lot first, then by builder_title.

Output:

40 – Builder Name 1
40 – Builder Name 2
40 – Builder Name 3
55 – Builder Name 1
55 – Builder Name 2
55 – Builder Name 3
60 – Builder Name 1
60 – Builder Name 2
60 – Builder Name 3

Thanks!

• John Huebner

• June 9, 2022 at 9:28 am

You have to use a meta query with multiple values and clauses.

See the example of using clauses on the documentation for WP_Query() Order & Orderby Parameters. The example is titled “‘orderby’ with multiple ‘meta_key’s” and is currently the 10th example given.

Note, in your case you would use “EXISTS” for the compare setting on both meta keys.

• kpurcell

• June 9, 2022 at 11:25 am

I guess I’m missing something as this now returns nothing:

$builder_args = array(
	'post_type' => 'builders',
	'posts_per_page' => -1,
	'meta_query' => array(
		'relation' => 'AND',
		'lot_clause' => array(
			'key' => 'builder_lot',
			'value' => 'meta_value',
			'compare' => 'EXISTS',
		),
		'title_clause' => array(
			'key' => 'builder_title',
			'value' => 'meta_value',
			'compare' => 'EXISTS',
		), 
	),
	'orderby' => array( 
		'lot_clause' => 'ASC',
		'title_clause' => 'ASC',
	),		  
);

I’m not sure if key=value parts of the clauses are correct.

The link you provided says: “Note that a ‘meta_key=keyname‘ must also be present in the query.”

• John Huebner

• June 9, 2022 at 2:33 pm

you don’t need 'value' => '' for either field and that could be causing the issue.