Title: Custom Query Issue
Last modified: August 19, 2016

---

# Custom Query Issue

 *  Resolved [mikejandreau](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mikejandreau/)
 * (@mikejandreau)
 * [17 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-query-issue-1/)
 * I’m trying to move forward with moving a bunch of data from outside WordPress
   into WordPress, and running into some troubles.
 * I’m trying to use the instructions [here](http://codex.wordpress.org/Displaying_Posts_Using_a_Custom_Select_Query),
   and having some issues. Everything I’ve tried, comes back with no results.
 * The code below, based on what I’m reading, should give me an outputted list of
   everything post/page that has a custom field like %test%, which exists in my 
   dev database, but I get no results back.
 * My WordPress install has table prefixes of wordpress_, so I modified the code
   in the Codex, but still get nothing.
 *     ```
       <?php
   
        $querystr = "
           SELECT wordpress_posts.*
           FROM $wpdb->posts posts, $wpdb->postmeta postmeta
           WHERE wordpress_posts.ID = wordpress_postmeta.post_id
           AND wordpress_postmeta.meta_key = 'tags'
           AND wordpress_postmeta.meta_value LIKE '%test%'
           AND wordpress_posts.post_status = 'publish'
           AND wordpress_posts.post_type = 'post'
           ORDER BY wordpress_posts.post_date DESC
        ";
   
        $pageposts = $wpdb->get_results($querystr, OBJECT);
   
        ?>
   
        <?php if ($pageposts): ?>
        <?php foreach ($pageposts as $post): ?>
        <?php setup_postdata($post); ?>
   
        <div class="post" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
        <h2><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title(); ?>">
           <?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
           <small><?php the_time('F jS, Y') ?> <!-- by <?php the_author() ?> --></small>
           <div class="entry">
              <?php the_content('Read the rest of this entry »'); ?>
           </div>
           <p class="postmetadata">Posted in <?php the_category(', ') ?> | <?php edit_post_link('Edit', '', ' | '); ?>
           <?php comments_popup_link('No Comments »', '1 Comment »', '% Comments »'); ?></p>
        </div>
        <?php endforeach; ?>
        <?php else : ?>
           <h2 class="center">Not Found</h2>
           <p class="center">Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn't here.</p>
   
        <?php endif; ?>
       ```
   
 * Also, would it be possible to do the custom query based off of the page title?
   ie; AND wordpress_postmeta.meta_value LIKE ‘%whatever my page title is%’ ?
 * Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

 *  [stvwlf](https://wordpress.org/support/users/stvwlf/)
 * (@stvwlf)
 * [17 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-query-issue-1/#post-1061233)
 * Hi
 * What I see is
    1) you are only including posts, not pages (you referred to posts
   and pages) [ AND wordpress_posts.post_type = ‘post’ ]
 * 2) you are only including custom fields whose KEY value is ‘tags’
    (You did not
   refer to that in the query specs you described) [ AND wordpress_postmeta.meta_key
   = ‘tags’ ]
 * does this help, or am i missing something?
 * I haven’t run your query but it looks like if there is more than one occurrence
   of a custom field containing ‘test’ within its value, the post is going to be
   included once for each occurrence. I believe changing it to SELECT DISTINCT wordpress_posts.*…..
   
   takes care of that possibility, only returning a post once.
 *  Thread Starter [mikejandreau](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mikejandreau/)
 * (@mikejandreau)
 * [17 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-query-issue-1/#post-1061235)
 * Ugh. It’s always something so simple.
 * post_type = post changed to post_type = page, and
 * `FROM $wpdb->posts posts, $wpdb->postmeta postmeta` changed to
    `FROM $wpdb->
   posts wordpress_posts, $wpdb->postmeta wordpress_postmeta’ and voila.
 * It’s still showing the posts twice though, even with SELECT DISTINCT, any suggestions
   there?
 *  Thread Starter [mikejandreau](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mikejandreau/)
 * (@mikejandreau)
 * [17 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-query-issue-1/#post-1061236)
 * Nevermind, fixed the duplicate.
 * Now, onto the other part I can’t figure out.
 * How can I change `AND wordpress_postmeta.meta_value LIKE '%test%'`
 * To reflect the current page title of the page someone’s viewing **and** exclude
   the current page they’re on from showing in the results?
 * Thanks, again.
 *  Thread Starter [mikejandreau](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mikejandreau/)
 * (@mikejandreau)
 * [17 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-query-issue-1/#post-1061248)
 * Nevermind, I got it.
 * I just had to define what I wanted to use as the meta_value as a variable
 * `$variable = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'info', $single = true);`
 * I also used the same code to exclude the current page.
 * `$excluded = $post->ID;`
 *     ```
       <?php
   
        $querystr = "
           SELECT DISTINCT wordpress_posts.*
           FROM $wpdb->posts wordpress_posts, $wpdb->postmeta wordpress_postmeta
           WHERE wordpress_posts.ID = wordpress_postmeta.post_id
           AND wordpress_postmeta.meta_key = 'tags'
           AND wordpress_postmeta.meta_value LIKE '%$variable%'
           AND wordpress_posts.post_status = 'publish'
           AND wordpress_posts.post_type = 'page'
       	AND wordpress_posts.ID !='$excluded'
           ORDER BY wordpress_posts.post_date DESC
        ";
   
        $pageposts = $wpdb->get_results($querystr, OBJECT);
   
        ?>
       ```
   
 * And voila, it works! Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction.
 *  [stvwlf](https://wordpress.org/support/users/stvwlf/)
 * (@stvwlf)
 * [17 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-query-issue-1/#post-1061251)
 * Hi
 * Its almost always something that’s right under our noses, which is the advantage
   of 4 eyes over 2.
 * Great, on your getting it working.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

The topic ‘Custom Query Issue’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [custom-query](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/custom-query/)
 * [join](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/join/)
 * [meta_key](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/meta_key/)
 * [meta_value)](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/meta_value/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 5 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [stvwlf](https://wordpress.org/support/users/stvwlf/)
 * Last activity: [17 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-query-issue-1/#post-1061251)
 * Status: resolved

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