Title: WP query sort order
Last modified: January 9, 2017

---

# WP query sort order

 *  [ffwebdesigner](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ffwebdesigner/)
 * (@ffwebdesigner)
 * [9 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp-query-sort-order/)
 * hi guys,
 * i’m trying to sort my posts in a custom post order.
 *     ```
       $partner = new WP_Query( array( 
       	'post_type' => 'partner', 
       	'posts_per_page' => -1,
       	'nopaging' => true,
       	'meta_query' => array($meta_query)
       	 ) ); 
       ```
   
 * starts my query. all fine.
 * i’m trying to sort my posts in a cusstom sort order.
 * this works:
 *     ```
       global $query_string;
       query_posts( $query_string . '&order=ASC' );
       ```
   
 * this doesn’t:
 *     ```
       global $query_string;
       query_posts( $query_string . '&order=ASC&orderby=name' );
       ```
   
 * why?
 * i also tried
 *     ```
       $args = array_merge( $partner->query_vars, array( 'order' => 'DESC','orderby' => 'name' ) );
       query_posts( $args )
       ```
   
 * no effect either. args are merged correctly, but sort order doesn’t change.
 * 2nd question:
 * i execute a second query that checks inside custom post type projects which projects
   th partner took place in:
 *     ```
       function solarhaus_verlinkung($partner_name){
       	$meta_query[]=array(
       		'relation' => 'OR',
       			array('key' => 'planung_gebaeude','value' => $titel_clean,'compare' => 'LIKE'),
       		);
       	$solarhaeuser = new WP_Query( array( 
       		'post_type' => 'solarhaus',
       		'posts_per_page' => -1,
       		'meta_query' => array($meta_query)
       	) ); 
       	$solarhaeuser->wp_reset_postdata();
       	return $solarhaeuser;	
       }
       ```
   
 * this gives me the number of the partners projects.
    what would be the best way
   to first sort by date ASC then by number of projects? could i set up something
   like
 * `while ( $partner->have_posts() ) : $partner->get_the_post()['projects_number']
   = "xo";`

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [9 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp-query-sort-order/#post-8635863)
 * There is no “name” field in the posts table, its label is “post_name”. You must
   order by a proper field label. You shouldn’t use query_posts() to modify a new
   WP_Query, that’s not how it works. It actually throws out the WP_Query results
   and runs a new query. Just specify the proper WP_Query arguments to order as 
   desired when you instantiate the WP_Query object.
 * Similarly, there is no “projects_number” field in a post object. I’m assuming
   this is a meta field? If so, get the current post object’s ID and use that in
   get_post_meta(). If you need to qualify a query by a meta value, you can use 
   a “meta_query” argument. You can also order queries by meta values.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

The topic ‘WP query sort order’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [custom sort order](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/custom-sort-order/)

 * In: [Developing with WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/wp-advanced/)
 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * Last activity: [9 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp-query-sort-order/#post-8635863)
 * Status: not resolved

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