Title: WP_QUERY with multiple nested array within meta_query Last modified: August 14, 2017 --- # WP_QUERY with multiple nested array within meta_query * Resolved [unicco](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unicco/) * (@unicco) * [8 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-with-multiple-meta_query/) * WP_QUERY is returning an 504 Gateway Time-out error. I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong. I want to retrieve all items which have either a price between 1 and 3000 OR 3001 and 6000. The upper “relation” => OR (within meta_query) is causing wordpress to return 504. * Could someone please help me out, and tell me what I’m doing wrong? * I’ve constructed my query using [https://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query#Custom_Field_Parameters](https://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query#Custom_Field_Parameters) * ``` Array ( [post_type] => Array ( [0] => product ) [posts_per_page] => 30 [offset] => 0 [order] => DESC [orderby] => date [post_status] => publish [ignore_sticky_posts] => 1 [paged] => 1 [tax_query] => Array ( [relation] => AND [0] => Array ( [taxonomy] => product_cat [field] => slug [terms] => Array ( [0] => moebler ) [operator] => IN ) ) [meta_query] => Array ( [relation] => OR <----- THIS BUGS [0] => Array ( [relation] => AND [0] => Array ( [key] => _price [value] => 1 [compare] => >= [type] => DECIMAL ) [1] => Array ( [key] => _price [value] => 3000 [compare] => <= [type] => DECIMAL ) ) [1] => Array ( [relation] => AND [0] => Array ( [key] => _price [value] => 3001 [compare] => >= [type] => DECIMAL ) [1] => Array ( [key] => _price [value] => 6000 [compare] => <= [type] => DECIMAL ) ) ) ) ``` - This topic was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by [unicco](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unicco/). - This topic was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by [unicco](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unicco/). Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total) * [Jonathan Bossenger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/psykro/) * (@psykro) * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-with-multiple-meta_query/#post-9409399) * [@unicco](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unicco/) I don’t think you can use ‘=> >=’ for compare the way you are doing. * Have you set WP_DEBUG to true, this might show some PHP errors you are missing. * It might also be easier if you past your original PHP code here. * Thread Starter [unicco](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unicco/) * (@unicco) * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-with-multiple-meta_query/#post-9409504) * Actually I’m building the query using Ajax, and printing the query args using var_dump returns an error. So I hooked on a filter, an echo to wp_debug_log instead. * The docs states: “Possible values are ‘=’, ‘!=’, ‘>’, ‘>=’, ‘<‘, ‘<=’, ‘LIKE’,‘ NOT LIKE’, ‘IN’, ‘NOT IN’, ‘BETWEEN’, ‘NOT BETWEEN’, ‘NOT EXISTS’, ‘REGEXP’, ‘ NOT REGEXP’ or ‘RLIKE’. Default value is ‘=’.”, so it should be possible. I could try BETWEEN instead, but I don’t think it would work. * [Jonathan Bossenger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/psykro/) * (@psykro) * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-with-multiple-meta_query/#post-9409567) * Oh, sorry I read that wrong, the combination of the array notation ( => ) and the comparison operators threw me. * Are the meta keys for price definitely ‘_price’ ? * Thread Starter [unicco](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unicco/) * (@unicco) * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-with-multiple-meta_query/#post-9409607) * Yes I’m pretty sure about that. If I only have one nested meta query, it works perfectly. That’s why I know, that the inner atts are correct. If I change the outer `relation` to AND this works too, but I want to use OR. Saying either the price is between array 1 or its between array 2. I’m just wondering why this is bugging. - This reply was modified 8 years, 9 months ago by [unicco](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unicco/). * Thread Starter [unicco](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unicco/) * (@unicco) * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-with-multiple-meta_query/#post-9409638) * And a timeout error seems pretty weird aswell… If I put weird/wrong things in my query, I’m use to just getting an empty resultset back. But an timeout error confuses me.. * [Jonathan Bossenger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/psykro/) * (@psykro) * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-with-multiple-meta_query/#post-9410383) * Can you echo the query that is being run? * $query = new WP_Query( $args ); echo $query->request; * If you run that query directly on the database it might show the errors * Thread Starter [unicco](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unicco/) * (@unicco) * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-with-multiple-meta_query/#post-9410436) * No, because `new WP_Query( $args );` returns 504, so I won’t be able to retrieve that prop on that object. - This reply was modified 8 years, 9 months ago by [unicco](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unicco/). * Thread Starter [unicco](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unicco/) * (@unicco) * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-with-multiple-meta_query/#post-9410453) * Actually I tried to build up my meta_query directly in php. This results in a timeout error aswell. Is this a bug in WP, or what the heck? * ``` $args[ 'meta_query' ] = array( 'relation' => 'OR', array( 'relation' => 'AND', array( 'key' => '_price', 'value' => '1', 'compare' => '>=', 'type' => 'DECIMAL', ), array( 'key' => '_price', 'value' => '3000', 'compare' => '<=', 'type' => 'DECIMAL', ), ), array( 'relation' => 'AND', array( 'key' => '_price', 'value' => '3001', 'compare' => '>=', 'type' => 'DECIMAL', ), array( 'key' => '_price', 'value' => '6000', 'compare' => '<=', 'type' => 'DECIMAL', ), ), ); ``` * From error_log (the wp query arg): * ``` [15-Aug-2017 07:33:16 UTC] Array ( [post_type] => Array ( [0] => product ) [posts_per_page] => 30 [offset] => 0 [order] => DESC [orderby] => date [post_status] => publish [ignore_sticky_posts] => 1 [paged] => 1 [tax_query] => Array ( [relation] => AND [0] => [1] => Array ( [taxonomy] => product_cat [field] => slug [terms] => Array ( [0] => moebler ) [operator] => IN ) ) [meta_query] => Array ( [relation] => OR [0] => Array ( [relation] => AND [0] => Array ( [key] => _price [value] => 1 [compare] => >= [type] => DECIMAL ) [1] => Array ( [key] => _price [value] => 3000 [compare] => <= [type] => DECIMAL ) ) [1] => Array ( [relation] => AND [0] => Array ( [key] => _price [value] => 3001 [compare] => >= [type] => DECIMAL ) [1] => Array ( [key] => _price [value] => 6000 [compare] => <= [type] => DECIMAL ) ) ) ) ``` - This reply was modified 8 years, 9 months ago by [unicco](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unicco/). * Thread Starter [unicco](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unicco/) * (@unicco) * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-with-multiple-meta_query/#post-9410622) * Alright. I’ve an solution for this. Seems like this should be reported as a bug in WP. I believe the above way to have nested meta-queries are 1:1 with how the docs state it. However, it kept returning an 504 error. I’m not quite sure why, but it seems like WP_QUERY dosen’t translate the arg-query-array correctly. * Instead I used BETWEEN, without using any nested meta_queries, and this works perfectly. * ``` $args[ 'meta_query' ] = array( 'relation' => 'OR', array( 'key' => '_price', 'value' => array( 1, 3000 ), 'compare' => 'BETWEEN', 'type' => 'DECIMAL', ), array( 'key' => '_price', 'value' => array( 3001, 6000 ), 'compare' => 'BETWEEN', 'type' => 'DECIMAL', ), ); ``` * [https://prnt.sc/g8nuo8](https://prnt.sc/g8nuo8) - This reply was modified 8 years, 9 months ago by [unicco](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unicco/). * [Jonathan Bossenger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/psykro/) * (@psykro) * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-with-multiple-meta_query/#post-9410774) * I’m not sure if its a bug or just the fact that you can’t nest meta queries in that way, however if you are searching for results between 2 values, the use of the BETWEEN keyword is recommended. Glad you were able to sort it out. * Please mark this topic as resolved. - This reply was modified 8 years, 9 months ago by [Jonathan Bossenger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/psykro/). * Thread Starter [unicco](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unicco/) * (@unicco) * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-with-multiple-meta_query/#post-9410844) * Well if you have that opinion, I’d prefer getting an explanation, why that is so. As far as I can see, the docs outlines, that it’s possible to have nested meta queries, but when using it, it breaks the site. Actually I had a deadlock in the database, and couldn’t access neither front nor backend. I had to restart mysql service before I could access. If you don’t categorize that as a bug, what is it? * [Jonathan Bossenger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/psykro/) * (@psykro) * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-with-multiple-meta_query/#post-9410992) * [@unicco](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unicco/) my apologies, I’ve just setup a test using the structure you have provided * This is my meta_query * ``` 'meta_query' => array( 'relation' => 'OR', array( 'relation' => 'AND', array( 'key' => '_price', 'value' => 1, 'compare' => '>=', 'type' => 'DECIMAL', ), array( 'key' => '_price', 'value' <= 3000, 'compare' => '<=', 'type' => 'DECIMAL', ), ), array( 'relation' => 'AND', array( 'key' => '_price', 'value' => 3001, 'compare' => '>=', 'type' => 'DECIMAL', ), array( 'key' => '_price', 'value' <= 6000, 'compare' => '<=', 'type' => 'DECIMAL', ), ) ), ``` * And it works returns data on my test bed. So you are correct in that it should be possible and it should work and does in my test. * Therefore I can only assume there is something else amiss with the query itself or that something is causing hassles elsewhere. * Apologies for making my earlier assumption, but I find it hard to debug a problem without seeing the original PHP code, hence I had to code it up for myself 😉 * [Jonathan Bossenger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/psykro/) * (@psykro) * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-with-multiple-meta_query/#post-9411002) * [@unicco](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unicco/) I am making guesses here, but it could be because you are casting the type as DECIMAL but passing a string for the value? Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total) The topic ‘WP_QUERY with multiple nested array within meta_query’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [database](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/database/) * [query](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/query/) * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 13 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [Jonathan Bossenger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/psykro/) * Last activity: [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_query-with-multiple-meta_query/#post-9411002) * Status: resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics