Title: Custom Field Array Last modified: August 19, 2016 --- # Custom Field Array * [Michael](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mlove2k2/) * (@mlove2k2) * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-field-array/) * Hi, * I am pretty new to php and I am sure that there is a something glaring that I am missing, but I am hoping someone can help me. * I have to custom fields that each contain multiple values and I am trying to get them to display in sequence. I am using the code: * ``` ID, "monday_venue_name", false); $m_event = get_post_meta($post->ID, "monday_event_description", false); foreach ( $m_venue as $m_venue) { if ($m_venue){ echo '
'.$m_venue.'
'; echo '
'.$m_event.'
'; } } ?> ``` * I can get the $m_venue to display correctly, but $m_event simply comes out as“ Array”. * I believe I need to break up the array into its individual vales, but I am having trouble figuring out how to do that. * If anyone has some suggestions about how I might do this, or where I might turn for more information, I would greatly appreciate it. * Thank you very much! Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total) * [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/) * (@vtxyzzy) * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-field-array/#post-1688087) * You will need some way to connect each $m_venue to its own $m_event. I do not see anything in the code shown that indicates a link between the two. * If these are the only two data items you have, it might be simpler to put them both in a single custom field with a separator between them. Then explode them out to display them separately. * Otherwise, you will need to put some key field in each of your values that can be extracted and used to look up the corresponding values. * Thread Starter [Michael](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mlove2k2/) * (@mlove2k2) * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-field-array/#post-1688107) * Hey vtxyzzy! * Thank you so much for your response! * I see your point and it makes perfect sense! * I must admit that I am not entirely sure how I might assign a link value to each of the fields automatically, but I will investigate! * I was also exploring other options for getting the result I want and I came up with this code: ‘ID, “monday_venue_name”, false); $m_event = get_post_meta($post->ID, “monday_event_description”, false); * for ( $i = 0; $i < count($m_venue); $i++) { * echo ‘
’.$m_venue[$i].'
’; * echo ‘
’.$m_event[$i].'
’; * } * ?>’ * Which does in fact return the value of each corresponding field, however the two are not linked. In other words, the $m_venue and $m_event values I was to have “grouped” together are not grouping. * I believe this is almost exactly the point you made as well. * I was thinking of using reset() to make sure that each array will start at 0, but I have not been able to make that work. * Thank you again, and if you have any other suggestions I would love to hear them! * Michael * [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/) * (@vtxyzzy) * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-field-array/#post-1688112) * AFAIK, there is no way to automatically assign a link key to each value. That is something you will have to do as you enter each custom field. * Using reset() will not work because the arrays are not guaranteed to be in corresponding order to begin with. * You will either need to put all values that go together in one custom field, say comma-separated, or else add in a key to each pair. * Since each set will be unique to a post, this should be fairly easy. For example, you could just use a zero-padded number like this: * ``` Custom Field Value ------------------------ --------------------------- monday_venue_name 001,the first venue monday_event_description 001,the first description monday_venue_name 002,the second venue monday_event_description 002,the second description ``` * Then, index the event array and get the values by key in the display loop: * ``` foreach ($m_event as $event) { list($key, $value) = explode(',',$event); $indexed_events[$key] = $value; } foreach ( $m_venue as $each_venue) { list($key,$venue) = explode(',',$each_venue); echo '
'.$venue.'
'; echo '
'; if ($description = $indexed_event[$key]) { echo $description; } else { echo ' '; } echo '
'; } ``` * Thread Starter [Michael](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mlove2k2/) * (@mlove2k2) * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-field-array/#post-1688119) * Thank you so much! * I was toying with the idea of combining the two arrays into one array but that does not work either. * I was hoping to keep the entry fields separate on the user end rather than comma separated, so I will have to design a key for each pair. * Thank you so much for all of your help! * Michael * [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/) * (@vtxyzzy) * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-field-array/#post-1688123) * You beat to it. Please refer to my previous reply. * Thread Starter [Michael](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mlove2k2/) * (@mlove2k2) * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-field-array/#post-1688168) * Wow! * Thank you! * This is really great! * I am sorry if my “newbie” is showing, but I wondered if you might be able to point me to a place where I might be able to learn about adding the zero-padded number to the field set? * I am using the Custom Field Template plugin to generate the fields on a custom content type. * I really do appreciate all of your help! * Thank you so much! * [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/) * (@vtxyzzy) * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-field-array/#post-1688182) * I have never used the Custom Field Template plugin, so I don’t know how it works. * Do you type in the values for the custom fields? If so, just type in the value of the key as well. * Thread Starter [Michael](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mlove2k2/) * (@mlove2k2) * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-field-array/#post-1688188) * Oh, the plugin just creates a UI for adding custom fields, well that is not ALL it does, but I cant claim to fully understand its other features. * Hahahah! * I have to imagine that there is a way to “count” and assign a unique ID to each instance of each custom field, and have it relatively “transparent” on the content type edit screen. * I just have not yet wrapped my head around it yet. * Thank you so much for all your help. * [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/) * (@vtxyzzy) * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-field-array/#post-1688192) * I can’t imagine that it would be very simple to do what you are wanting. What happens if you only fill in one value of a pair? What happens if you go back tomorrow and edit one of a pair? * If the plugin adds the key, it will have to show up in the value box. The user could then edit it and break the link. * This could get nasty. * Thread Starter [Michael](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mlove2k2/) * (@mlove2k2) * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-field-array/#post-1688216) * Yes, I am beginning to think you are very right about that! * What I really want to do is create a weekly calendar that is connected to a custom post time so that the calendar of events is not updated in “real” time, but rather each week when that post is published. * I guess I should probably look in another direction. Perhaps an already existing plugin that will allow for this type of thing. * Its less of a calendar and more of a list of weekly events. * In theory it does not sound too hard, but I am clearly doing something off-base! * Hahahaha! * Thank you so much for your help! * Michael * [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/) * (@vtxyzzy) * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-field-array/#post-1688226) * I may be able to help if you are using a free theme that I can download to my test site. I will need a lot more detail, though. - What do you want to see on the screen? - Who enters the data? - How often is it entered? - How will you get to the screen? Does it need to show a post, or can it be a static page? * Email me at mac =at= mcdspot =dot= com with as much detail as you can. Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total) The topic ‘Custom Field Array’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [array](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/array/) * [custom field](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/custom-field/) * [display](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/display/) * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 11 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [vtxyzzy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vtxyzzy/) * Last activity: [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-field-array/#post-1688226) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics