update_user_meta( int $user_id, string $meta_key, mixed $meta_value, mixed $prev_value = '' ): int|bool

User Contributed Notes

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   kimdcottrell 7 years ago

   You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this noteVote results for this note: 8You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note

   update_user_meta() will update ALL user meta of the same key UNLESS you specify a specific record out of the set that you want to replace.

   Here’s a way to do that, specifically for the instance where you have user meta that may look like this:

   +---------+----------------------+----------------- | user_id | meta_key | meta_value | +---------+----------------------+----------------- | 862 | favorite_coffee | {"coffee_id":10,"title":"Vietnamese Iced Coffee","type":"drip"} | 862 | favorite_coffee | {"coffee_id":11,"title":"Mocha","type":"espresso"} | 862 | favorite_coffee | {"coffee_id":12,"title":"Just An Okay Cappuchino","type":"espresso"}

   // dummy data to better show the issue, we want to change the title of `coffee_id` 12 $parameters = array( 'coffee_id' => '12', 'title' => 'A Delicious Cappuchino', 'type' => 'espresso', ); // try to find some `favorite_coffee` user meta $previous_favorite_coffee = get_user_meta( $user_id, 'favorite_coffee', false ); /** * First, the condition for when no favorite_coffee user meta data exists **/ if ( empty( $previous_favorite_coffee ) ) { add_user_meta( $user_id, 'favorite_coffee', $parameters ); } /** * Second, the condition for when some favorite_coffee user_meta data already exists **/ // search recursively through records returned from get_user_meta for the record you want to replace, as identified by `coffee_id` - credit: http://php.net/manual/en/function.array-search.php#116635 $coffee_id = array_search( $parameters['coffee_id'], array_column( $previous_favorite_coffee, 'coffee_id' ) ); if ( false === $coffee_id ) { // add if the wp_usermeta meta_key[favorite_coffee] => meta_value[ $parameters[ $coffee_id ] ] pair does not exist add_user_meta( $user_id, 'favorite_coffee', $parameters ); } else { // update if the wp_usermeta meta_key[favorite_coffee] => meta_value[ $parameters[ $coffee_id ] ] pair already exists update_user_meta( $user_id, 'favorite_coffee', $parameters, $previous_favorite_coffee[ $coffee_id ] ); }
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   Codex 10 years ago

   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

   how to check for errors

   $user_id = 1; $new_value = 'some new value'; // Will return false if the previous value is the same as $new_value. $updated = update_user_meta( $user_id, 'some_meta_key', $new_value ); // So check and make sure the stored value matches $new_value. if ( $new_value != get_user_meta( $user_id, 'some_meta_key', true ) ) {	wp_die( __( 'An error occurred', 'textdomain' ) ); }