get_post_meta( int $post_id, string $key = '', bool $single = false )

Retrieves a post meta field for the given post ID.

Contents

Description Description

Parameters Parameters

$post_id

(int) (Required) Post ID.

$key

(string) (Optional) The meta key to retrieve. By default, returns data for all keys.

Default value: ''

$single

(bool) (Optional) If true, returns only the first value for the specified meta key. This parameter has no effect if $key is not specified.

Default value: false

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Return Return

(mixed) Will be an array if $single is false. Will be value of the meta field if $single is true.

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Source Source

File: wp-includes/post.php 

function get_post_meta( $post_id, $key = '', $single = false ) {
	return get_metadata( 'post', $post_id, $key, $single );
}

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Changelog Changelog

Changelog
Version Description
1.5.0 Introduced.

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More Information More Information

  • Please note that if a db collation is case insensitive (has with suffix _ci) then update_post_meta and delete_post_meta and get_posts() will update/delete/query the meta records with keys that are upper or lower case. However get_post_meta will apparently be case sensitive due to WordPress caching. See https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/18210 for more info. Be careful not to mix upper and lowercase.
  • Uses: get_metadata() to retrieve the metadata.

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Used By Used By

Used By
Used By Description
wp-includes/user.php: WP_User_Request::__construct()

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wp-includes/user.php: _wp_privacy_send_request_confirmation_notification()

Notify the site administrator via email when a request is confirmed.
wp-includes/user.php: _wp_privacy_send_erasure_fulfillment_notification()

Notify the user when their erasure request is fulfilled.
wp-includes/post.php: wp_check_for_changed_dates()

Check for changed dates for published post objects and save the old date.
wp-admin/includes/misc.php: WP_Privacy_Policy_Content::get_suggested_policy_text()

Check for updated, added or removed privacy policy information from plugins.
wp-admin/includes/misc.php: WP_Privacy_Policy_Content::text_change_check()

Quick check if any privacy info has changed.
wp-admin/includes/misc.php: WP_Privacy_Policy_Content::_policy_page_updated()

Update the cached policy info when the policy page is updated.
wp-admin/includes/file.php: wp_privacy_process_personal_data_export_page()

Intercept personal data exporter page ajax responses in order to assemble the personal data export file.
wp-admin/includes/file.php: wp_privacy_generate_personal_data_export_file()

Generate the personal data export file.
wp-admin/includes/file.php: wp_privacy_send_personal_data_export_email()

Send an email to the user with a link to the personal data export file
wp-includes/class-wp-customize-manager.php: WP_Customize_Manager::set_changeset_lock()

Marks the changeset post as being currently edited by the current user.
wp-includes/class-wp-customize-manager.php: WP_Customize_Manager::refresh_changeset_lock()

Refreshes changeset lock with the current time if current user edited the changeset before.
wp-includes/class-wp-customize-manager.php: WP_Customize_Manager::import_theme_starter_content()

Import theme starter content into the customized state.
wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-attachments-controller.php: WP_REST_Attachments_Controller::prepare_item_for_response()

Prepares a single attachment output for response.
wp-includes/class-wp-customize-nav-menus.php: WP_Customize_Nav_Menus::save_nav_menus_created_posts()

Publish the auto-draft posts that were created for nav menu items.
wp-includes/general-template.php: get_custom_logo()

Returns a custom logo, linked to home.
wp-includes/theme.php: get_header_image_tag()

Create image tag markup for a custom header image.
wp-admin/includes/ajax-actions.php: wp_ajax_crop_image()

Ajax handler for cropping an image.
wp-admin/includes/image-edit.php: wp_restore_image()

Restores the metadata for a given attachment.
wp-admin/includes/image-edit.php: wp_save_image()

Saves image to post along with enqueued changes in $_REQUEST[‘history’]
wp-admin/includes/image-edit.php: wp_image_editor()

Loads the WP image-editing interface.
wp-admin/includes/template.php: _post_states()
wp-admin/includes/template.php: _media_states()
wp-admin/includes/media.php: edit_form_image_editor()

Displays the image and editor in the post editor
wp-admin/includes/media.php: get_attachment_fields_to_edit()

Retrieves the attachment fields to edit form fields.
wp-admin/includes/media.php: media_upload_form_handler()

Handles form submissions for the legacy media uploader.
wp-admin/includes/post.php: wp_check_post_lock()

Check to see if the post is currently being edited by another user.
wp-admin/includes/post.php: edit_post()

Update an existing post with values provided in $_POST.
wp-admin/includes/ajax-actions.php: wp_ajax_wp_fullscreen_save_post()

Ajax handler for saving posts from the fullscreen editor.
wp-admin/includes/ajax-actions.php: wp_ajax_save_attachment()

Ajax handler for updating attachment attributes.
wp-admin/includes/meta-boxes.php: post_thumbnail_meta_box()

Display post thumbnail meta box.
wp-admin/includes/meta-boxes.php: post_submit_meta_box()

Displays post submit form fields.
wp-admin/custom-header.php: Custom_Image_Header::get_uploaded_header_images()

Gets the previously uploaded header images.
wp-includes/capabilities.php: map_meta_cap()

Map meta capabilities to primitive capabilities.
wp-includes/theme.php: get_uploaded_header_images()

Get the header images uploaded for the current theme.
wp-includes/class-wp-embed.php: WP_Embed::shortcode()

The do_shortcode() callback function.
wp-includes/post-thumbnail-template.php: get_post_thumbnail_id()

Retrieve post thumbnail ID.
wp-includes/nav-menu-template.php: _wp_menu_item_classes_by_context()

Add the class property classes for the current context, if applicable.
wp-includes/post-template.php: get_page_template_slug()

Get the specific template name for a given post.
wp-includes/media.php: wp_maybe_generate_attachment_metadata()

Maybe attempts to generate attachment metadata, if missing.
wp-includes/media.php: wp_prepare_attachment_for_js()

Prepares an attachment post object for JS, where it is expected to be JSON-encoded and fit into an Attachment model.
wp-includes/media.php: wp_enqueue_media()

Enqueues all scripts, styles, settings, and templates necessary to use all media JS APIs.
wp-includes/media.php: wp_get_attachment_image()

Get an HTML img element representing an image attachment
wp-includes/class-wp-post.php: WP_Post::__get()

Getter.
wp-includes/post.php: wp_check_for_changed_slugs()

Check for changed slugs for published post objects and save the old slug.
wp-includes/post.php: wp_delete_attachment()

Trash or delete an attachment.
wp-includes/post.php: wp_get_attachment_metadata()

Retrieve attachment meta field for attachment ID.
wp-includes/post.php: wp_get_attachment_url()

Retrieve the URL for an attachment.
wp-includes/post.php: wp_untrash_post_comments()

Restore comments for a post from the trash.
wp-includes/post.php: wp_insert_post()

Insert or update a post.
wp-includes/post.php: wp_untrash_post()

Restore a post or page from the Trash.
wp-includes/post.php: get_post_custom()

Retrieve post meta fields, based on post ID.
wp-includes/post.php: get_post_status()

Retrieve the post status based on the post ID.
wp-includes/post.php: get_attached_file()

Retrieve attached file path based on attachment ID.
wp-includes/author-template.php: get_the_modified_author()

Retrieve the author who last edited the current post.
wp-includes/nav-menu.php: wp_get_associated_nav_menu_items()

Get the menu items associated with a particular object.
wp-includes/nav-menu.php: wp_setup_nav_menu_item()

Decorates a menu item object with the shared navigation menu item properties.
wp-includes/nav-menu.php: wp_update_nav_menu_item()

Save the properties of a menu item or create a new one.
wp-includes/nav-menu.php: wp_get_nav_menu_items()

Retrieves all menu items of a navigation menu.
wp-includes/class-wp-xmlrpc-server.php: wp_xmlrpc_server::add_enclosure_if_new()

Adds an enclosure to a post if it’s new.
wp-includes/class-wp-xmlrpc-server.php: wp_xmlrpc_server::_prepare_post()

Prepares post data for return in an XML-RPC object.
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User Contributed Notes User Contributed Notes

  1. Skip to note 1 content
    You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 32You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note
    Contributed by memuller —

    Return values when no meta field is found
    If a meta field with the given $key isn’t found for the given $post_id, the return value varies:

    If $single is true, an empty string is returned.
    If $single is false, an empty array is returned.

    Since both evaluate as false, you can use get_post_meta directly in conditionals, like this:

    if( ! get_post_meta( '1', 'non-existing_meta', true ) ) {}
if( ! get_post_meta( '1', 'non-existing_meta', false ) ) {}
// both ifs will get run if no meta field is found; since
// array() == false and '' == false

    What if I want to store an empty string?
    If for some reason your with to store an empty string or array into your meta field, get_post_meta will not be reliable when checking if the given meta field exists.
    In this case, you can use get_post_custom_keys to do so:

    if( ! in_array( 'given_key', get_post_custom_keys( '1' ) ) ) {} 
// this correctly checks for the existence of the given key, 
// even if it's empty or has a value that evaluates as false.
  3. Skip to note 3 content
    You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 17You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note
    Contributed by Codex —

    Default Usage
    Get the meta for all keys for the current post:

    <?php $meta = get_post_meta( get_the_ID() ); ?>

    Get all meta for a single key for the current post:

    <?php $key_1_values = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'key_1' ); ?>

    Get the first value of a meta key for the current post:

    <?php $key_1_value = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'key_1', true ); ?>
  4. Skip to note 4 content
    You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 12You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note
    Contributed by Ian Dunn —

    The best thing about this function is that you no longer need to use it :)

    Since r21559 (v3.5), you can just call $post->foo to fetch the equivalent of get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'foo', true ).

    You can even extend that to introduce dynamically-generated fields, so you can call echo esc_html( $post->bar ) instead of $bar = some_custom_logic( get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'bar', true ) ); echo esc_html( $bar ).

    This makes code a lot cleaner and more readable.

    add_filter( 'get_post_metadata', 'add_dynamic_post_meta', 10, 4 );

/**
 * Add dynamically-generated "post meta" to `\WP_Post` objects
 *
 * This makes it possible to access dynamic data related to a post object by simply referencing `$post->foo`.
 * That keeps the calling code much cleaner than if it were to have to do something like
 * `$foo = some_custom_logic( get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'bar', true ) ); echo esc_html( $foo )`.
 *
 * @param mixed  $value
 * @param int    $post_id
 * @param string $meta_key
 * @param int    $single   @todo handle the case where this is false
 *
 * @return mixed
 *      `null` to instruct `get_metadata()` to pull the value from the database
 *      Any non-null value will be returned as if it were pulled from the database
 */
function add_dynamic_post_meta( $value, $post_id, $meta_key, $single ) {
	$post = get_post( $post_id );

	if ( 'page' != $post->post_type ) {
		return $value;
	}

	switch ( $meta_key ) {
		case 'verbose_page_template':
			$value = "The page template is " . ( $post->_wp_page_template ?: 'not assigned' );
			break;
	}

	return $value;
}

    Expand full source codeCollapse full source code

  5. Skip to note 5 content
    You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 9You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note
    Contributed by Codex —

    Retrieve a Custom Field Thumbnail Url
    While you are in the WordPress Loop, you can use this code to retrieve a custom field. In this example, the thumbnail image url is in a custom field named “thumb”.

    <?php if ( get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'thumb', true ) ) : ?>
	<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark">
		<img class="thumb" src="<?php echo esc_url( get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'thumb', true ) ); ?>" alt="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>" />
	</a>
<?php endif; ?>
  7. Skip to note 7 content
    You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 3You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note
    Contributed by stijnjanmaat —

    When you don’t specify a $key (”) and set $single to true in get_post_meta, it will return all keys still with an array of values.

    $meta = get_post_meta(get_the_ID(), '', true);
print_r($meta);
//Array ( [key_1] => Array ( [0] => value_1 ), [key_2] => Array ( [0] => value_2 ) )
  10. Skip to note 10 content
    You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: -1You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note
    Contributed by Nadav Rotchild —

    If the value of the $key parameter is falsy get_post_meta will return the entire post meta array, even if $single is set to true. for example:

    get_post_meta( $post_id, FALSE, TRUE); //Returns all the post meta fields as an array.
get_post_meta( $post_id, '0', TRUE); //Will also return all the post meta fields as an array.
  11. Skip to note 11 content
    You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: -1You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note
    Contributed by Mário Valney —

    False if post ID isn’t absint or is 0

    Passing $post_id == 0 (or anything not a absint) will return false no matter $single.

    $meta = get_post_meta( 0, 'key', true );
var_dump( $meta ); // bool(false)

$meta = get_post_meta( 0, 'key', false );
var_dump( $meta ); // bool(false)
  12. Skip to note 12 content
    You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: -7You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note
    Contributed by sltmunky69 —

    When I had tons of meta keys to work with to display some custom content for custom post types, instead of making several dozen calls to the get_post_meta function to grab the keys I wanted, I wrote this function instead. Basically it gets all of the meta keys and filters out all of the arrays with single values while maintaining any arrays that actually do have multiple values and returns an associative array of the results. If you have lots of single values to get, it saves you from having to iterate over every result to get your $k=>$v pairs so you can just access them by $mk[‘my_custom_meta_key’].
    function array_push_assoc($array, $key, $value){
    $array[$key] = $value;
    return $array;
    }

    function filter_gpm($array){
    $mk = array();
    foreach($array as $k => $v){
    if(is_array($v) && count($v) == 1){
    $mk = array_push_assoc($mk, $k, $v[0]);
    } else {
    $mk = array_push_assoc($mk, $k, $v);
    }
    }
    return $mk;
    }
    Call it like so
    $mk = filter_gpm( get_post_meta( get_the_ID() ) );

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