How to programmatically fetch posts matching a search query in WordPress?

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In my plugin code I would like to perform a WP_Query (or similar) which returns all posts matching a given query string, as if the user typed that same string into the WordPress search form. Perhaps I’m just being dense, but I cannot seem to find a way to do so. I would expect to have a special parameter for WP_Query, such as matching, but I see no evidence of one.

I’ll start going through the WordPress codebase to see how it’s done internally, and I’ll post the answer here if I find it. I just thought someone might happen to know offhand.

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5 comments

  1. Passing a query variable of “s” to WP_Query with a search term will filter post results by search term:

    $query_args = array( 's' => 'disquiet' );
$query = new WP_Query( $query_args );

    The corresponding SQL WHERE clause generated by this query looks like this:

    AND (((wp_posts.post_title LIKE '%disquiet%') OR (wp_posts.post_content LIKE '%disquiet%')))

    Default search includes the wildcards as shown above, which is most likely what you’re looking for. If you want an exact search, you can also pass a query var of "exact" => true.

    For the details see the get_posts method of WP_Query in wp-includes/query.php.

  2. I use this in my plugin:

    $query = new WP_Query(array(
    'post_type' => 'any',
    'suppress_filters' => TRUE,
    'posts_per_page' => '-1'
));

foreach ($query->posts as $post) {
    // ...
}

    post_type is needed if you’re going to work with custom post types. suppress_filters will prevent the content from being formatted if you need to analyse it. posts_per_page will return all posts, not the default per page.

  3. Something like this?

    // Check the query variable is available
if(!$wp_query) global $wp_query; // If not, global it so it can be read from

// Your custom args
$args = array( 'the_title' => $search_term );

// Merge the custom args with any for the query already
$args = array_merge( $args , $wp_query->query );

// Now do the query
query_posts( $args );

    Or you could try this:

    $query = array (
    'the_title' => $search_term
);

$queryObject = new WP_Query($query);
// The Loop...

  4. I believe you are looking is this compare

    $args = array(
    'post_type' => 'product',
    'meta_query' => array(
        array(
            'key' => 'color',
            'value' => 'blue',
            'compare' => 'LIKE'
        )
    )
 );

    from wordpress documentation

    compare (string) - Operator to test. Possible values are '=', '!=', '>', '>=', '<', '<=', 'LIKE', 'NOT LIKE', 'IN', 'NOT IN', 'BETWEEN', 'NOT BETWEEN'. Default value is '='.

  5. This is a simpler and easier way to do search:

    $query = "
        SELECT      *
        FROM        $wpdb->posts
        WHERE       $wpdb->posts.post_title LIKE '$param2%'
        AND         $wpdb->posts.post_type = 'wp_exposants'
        ORDER BY    $wpdb->posts.post_title ";
 $wpdb->get_results($query);