Written by Admin on 2025-05-06

Comparing Null Meta Queries in WordPress with Code Examples

Meta queries play a vital role in filtering posts or pages based on custom fields or metadata in WordPress. Using meta_query in the WordPress query, one can filter results using different comparison operators such as =, !=, >, <, etc. But what about the comparison with Null data?

This article will cover how to compare null meta_query in WordPress with real-life code examples.

What is Null in WordPress Meta Data?

Null, in simple words, is the absence of a value or data in a field. Null meta in WordPress can be a field with no data or value at all. For instance, when a custom field has no value to show, it is considered as Null.

Comparing Null using Meta Query

Metaquery in WordPress provides an operator named LIKE. We can use the LIKE operator to compare Null in the metaquery.

For example, suppose we have a custom field named my_custom_field. Now, we want to display all posts that don't have any value in this specific field. We can do this by applying the following meta_query parameters:

php $args = array( 'post_type' => 'post', 'meta_query' => array( array( 'key' => 'my_custom_field', 'value' => '', 'compare' => 'LIKE' ) ) ); $query = new WP_Query( $args );

Wordpress Compare Null Meta Query

In the above code example, we compare the custom field value with LIKE and provide an empty string '' as the value. When we pass an empty value to the meta_query, it will return all the posts that don't have any value in this custom field.

On the other hand, we can also use the NOT EXISTS operator to fetch posts that don't have any value in a specific custom field. Let's take a look at the following example:

php $args = array( 'post_type' => 'post', 'meta_query' => array( array( 'key' => 'my_custom_field', 'value' => '', 'compare' => 'NOT EXISTS' ) ) ); $query = new WP_Query( $args );

The above code example will return all the posts that don't have any value in the custom field named my_custom_field.

Conclusion

In conclusion, comparing Null metaquery in WordPress is straightforward. We can use the LIKE operator to compare Null custom fields' values with an empty string or the NOT EXISTS operator to fetch posts that don't have any value in a custom field. These operators can be easily applied to a metaquery in the WordPress query.

Hopefully, this article will help you in fetching and filtering data in WordPress using custom fields and meta_query.