I have some post meta entries which I like to delete from the database. The delete_post_meta() function seems the way to go:

delete_post_meta( int $post_id, string $meta_key, mixed $meta_value = '' )

The problem: I have many entries with the same meta_key, so I'd like to specify the rows to be deleted by meta_value. But, the meta_value is serialized data. So how do I use delete_post_meta() to delete the post_meta by a specific value of the specialized data?

For example, the serialized data:

a:6:{s:2:"id";s:1:"1";s:4:"name";s:3:"PM1";s:5:"email";s:19:"[email protected]";s:3:"url";s:24:"/";s:4:"paid";s:1:"0";s:4:"city";s:9:"amsterdam";}

How do I delete by serialized ID value?

I have some post meta entries which I like to delete from the database. The delete_post_meta() function seems the way to go:

delete_post_meta( int $post_id, string $meta_key, mixed $meta_value = '' )

The problem: I have many entries with the same meta_key, so I'd like to specify the rows to be deleted by meta_value. But, the meta_value is serialized data. So how do I use delete_post_meta() to delete the post_meta by a specific value of the specialized data?

For example, the serialized data:

a:6:{s:2:"id";s:1:"1";s:4:"name";s:3:"PM1";s:5:"email";s:19:"[email protected]";s:3:"url";s:24:"https://example.nl/";s:4:"paid";s:1:"0";s:4:"city";s:9:"amsterdam";}

How do I delete by serialized ID value?

• php
• wp-query
• functions
• customization
• post-meta

1 Answer 1

Try below code to delete the post_meta by a specific value of the specialized data:

$args = array(
    'post_type' => 'post',
    'meta_key' => 'any-meta-key',
    'posts_per_page' => -1
 );

$query = new WP_Query( $args );
if($query->have_posts()){
    while($query->have_posts()){
        $query->the_post();
        $get_ID = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'any-meta-key', true);

        // Change the id value that you want to delete 
        if ( !empty($get_ID['id']) && $get_ID['id'] == '1' ) {
            delete_post_meta($post->ID,'any-meta-key',$get_ID);
        }
    }
}

Don't forget to update the test meta key by your meta key.