Order posts by ACF checkbox WordPress

User184831 comments:

Hi Naveen,

Thanks for taking a look into this question.

I did use one field name with a checkbox type that has three options in ACF. (Using the 'skateboard_performance' as a field name would be correct.) Then the

But how would the query go if by chance the names of the checkbox fields were not coincidentally in asc order?

For e.g

Field Name :
skateboard_performance

Field Type:
Checkbox

Choices: Value-Label:

platinum:Platinum
gold:Gold
silver:Silver

Naveen Chand comments:

Yeah, if the order of the checkbox option names are not in asc order, we should sort them and then loop through each of the option names.

But to get the checkbox option names, we need to get the field key which is not same as our meta_key 'skateboard_performance'. ACF stores field key separately. To get it, when you are on the Edit Field Groups page, simply go to Screen Options on top right corner and then enable Field Key. Once you get it, you can then extract the checkbox options and sort them.

Please see this code that does exactly what I mentioned above:


//get this from the Edit Field Group screen by clicking on Screen Options at the top right corner and then Show Field Key: Yes. It will be something like this 'field_3939393edi4kk3'. In my case, it is field_626a31c5e2e7b:

$field_key = 'field_626a31c5e2e7b';

$field = get_field_object($field_key);

//all the choices will be in this array: $field['choices'].
$choices_array = $field['choices'];

//sort these choices by key - this will sort them in ascending order.
ksort($choices_array);

//now that choices are in ascending order,
//loop through the choices and call wp query on every iteration.

foreach( $choices_array as $name => $label ) {

echo "<strong>Skateboards with performance rating: " .$label ."</strong><br>";

$skateboard_posts = new WP_Query( array(
'post_type' => 'skateboard', //insert the correct post_type name
'posts_per_page' => -1,
'meta_key' => 'skateboard_performance', //sample acf field name
'meta_value' => serialize(array($name)),
)
);
if ( $skateboard_posts->have_posts() ) {
while ( $skateboard_posts->have_posts() ) {
$skateboard_posts->the_post();
echo the_title() ."<br>";
}
} //end if
wp_reset_postdata();
} //end foreach


I have wrapped the above code in a function and used it as shortcode like this:


add_shortcode('getposts_sortby_acf_values', 'getposts_sortby_acf_values');
function getposts_sortby_acf_values(){
//get this from the Edit Field Group screen by clicking on Screen Options at the top right corner and then Show Field Key: Yes. It will be something like this 'field_3939393edi4kk3'. In my case, it is field_626a31c5e2e7b:

$field_key = 'field_626a31c5e2e7b';

$field = get_field_object($field_key);

//all the choices will be in this array: $field['choices'].
$choices_array = $field['choices'];

//sort these choices by key - this will sort them in ascending order.
ksort($choices_array);

//now that choices are in ascending order,
//loop through the choices and call wp query on every iteration.

foreach( $choices_array as $name => $label ) {

echo "<strong>Skateboards with performance rating: " .$label ."</strong><br>";

$skateboard_posts = new WP_Query( array(
'post_type' => 'skateboard', //insert the correct post_type name
'posts_per_page' => -1,
'meta_key' => 'skateboard_performance', //sample acf field name
'meta_value' => serialize(array($name)),
)
);
if ( $skateboard_posts->have_posts() ) {
while ( $skateboard_posts->have_posts() ) {
$skateboard_posts->the_post();
echo the_title() ."<br>";
}
} //end if
wp_reset_postdata();
} //end foreach
} //end of function


We can now use the shortcode [getposts_sortby_acf_values] in any page and it will display the skateboard post_titles grouped by the act field option names.

I have tried it on my test site and it produces the desired result of showing posts grouped by acf field choices that are ordered in ascending.

Hope you will find it useful.

thanks.

User184831 comments:

Thank you so much Naveen! - I had noooooo idea about the form group field key that you mentioned - This was very helpful and thanks again for showing me this. Very much appreciated!!