Sort WP Query by both positive and negative values WordPress

Jens Filipsson comments:

Yes, that one was a mistake when posting it here. I tried it, but it doesn't work without it either.

Andrea P comments:

mmm..

can I ask you why are you checking for _points to be existent OR to be not existent?

Andrea P comments:

also, what happens if you take off the ordering by date as well?

Jens Filipsson comments:

No change unfortunately

Andrea P comments:

sorry, again, why are you making 2 meta queries which just check if _point exists or not? that meta query will simply always give "true"..

can't you do something like this instead:

// WP_Query arguments

$args = array (
'parent' => $post->ID,
'posts_per_page' => '-1',
'post_type' => 'user_images',
'post_status' => 'publish',
'meta_key' => '_point',
'orderby' => 'meta_value_num',
'order' => 'DESC'

);

Jens Filipsson comments:

Because if no votes (meaning _point is empty), then it wont show up.

Andrea P comments:

try this then:


<?php

// WP_Query arguments

$args = array (
'parent' => $post->ID,
'posts_per_page' => '-1',
'post_type' => 'user_images',
'post_status' => 'publish',
'meta_key' => '_point',
'orderby' => 'meta_value_num',
'order' => 'DESC',
'meta_query' => array(
'relation' => 'OR',
array(
'key' => '_point',
'compare' => 'NOT EXISTS',
),
array(
'key' => '_point',
'compare' => 'EXISTS',
),
),

);


Jens Filipsson comments:

Then it excludes posts without votes unfortunately. I guess the date part has to be there as well maybe?

Andrea P comments:

what you choose to orderby, shouldn't influence what is fetched.

despite of the order, do you fetch what you need if you use this:


<?php

// WP_Query arguments

$args = array (
'parent' => $post->ID,
'posts_per_page' => '-1',
'post_type' => 'user_images',
'post_status' => 'publish',
'meta_query' => array(
'relation' => 'OR',
array(
'key' => '_point',
'compare' => 'NOT EXISTS',
),
array(
'key' => '_point',
'compare' => 'EXISTS',
),
),

);


Jens Filipsson comments:

You're probably right. I just realized: When field is empty, we cant order by this value, because there are no value. Hmm. That was stupid of me...

Jens Filipsson comments:

Is it possible to add something like this:

if NULL (no votes) add 0 to sorting?

Andrea P comments:

if the previous query is fetching the posts that you need, the query below should order them properly, based on the points, where the post actually has points


<?php

// WP_Query arguments

$args = array (
'parent' => $post->ID,
'posts_per_page' => '-1',
'post_type' => 'user_images',
'post_status' => 'publish',
'meta_query' => array(
'relation' => 'OR',
'no_point_clause' => array(
'key' => '_point',
'compare' => 'NOT EXISTS',
),
'points_clause' => array(
'key' => '_point',
'type' => 'NUMERIC',
'compare' => 'EXISTS',
),
),
'orderby' => 'points_clause',
'order' => 'DESC',

);


Jens Filipsson comments:

This didn't work, but shouldn't no_point_clause also be somewhere?

Andrea P comments:

I think if NULL, it should place them all after the last post with a value for points

so like

4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
-3
-4
NULL

and no, you can provide a value for the field while you are in the query..
you should do that with the code which creates the custom field, so that it tell it to put 0 as default for posts which haven't got a value set for that custom field.
how is that field created?

Jens Filipsson comments:

Yes, I started to think about that, will take a look at the code. Was a while ago ;)

Andrea P comments:

if _point don't exists, then you can't order by it, so the no_points_clause doesn't make sense as a parameter for orderby..

anyway, what do you mean "it didn't work? what happened?

Jens Filipsson comments:

Everything became random. But now I'm setting up a default value of "0" when publishing a post. This will hopefully sort it out.

Andrea P comments:

ah ok, so if then all the posts will have a value for _point, you don't need the meta queries and you should be able to use these args:


$args = array (
'parent' => $post->ID,
'posts_per_page' => '-1',
'post_type' => 'user_images',
'post_status' => 'publish',
'meta_key' => '_point',
'orderby' => 'meta_value_num',
'order' => 'DESC'
);


Jens Filipsson comments:

Great! Once again I find an answer by talking to you. I like you.

Andrea P comments:

ahah, perfect! glad to be helpful! :)