Limiting get_users() results by meta value with LIKE wildcards

[mpwalsh8]

I want to limit the results returned by get_users() to a subset of the users based on some criteria that will be stored in the User Meta table (e.g. all users whose first name begins with M).

Here arr the args I am passing to get_users():

(
    [include] =>
    [exclude] =>
    [fields] => all_with_meta
    [meta_key] => last_name
    [meta_value] => M%
    [meta_compare] => LIKE
)

This is the query the WordPress constructs for me:

[01-Feb-2013 16:01:08 UTC] WP_User_Query Object
(
    [query_vars] => Array
        (
            [blog_id] => 1
            [role] =>
            [meta_key] => last_name
            [meta_value] => M%
            [meta_compare] => LIKE
            [include] =>
            [exclude] =>
            [search] =>
            [search_columns] => Array
                (
                )

            [orderby] => login
            [order] => ASC
            [offset] =>
            [number] =>
            [count_total] =>
            [fields] => all_with_meta
            [who] =>
        )

    [results] => Array
        (
        )

    [total_users] => 0
    [query_fields] => wp_users.ID
    [query_from] => FROM wp_users INNER JOIN wp_usermeta ON (wp_users.ID = wp_usermeta.user_id)
    [query_where] => WHERE 1=1 AND ( (wp_usermeta.meta_key = 'last_name' AND CAST(wp_usermeta.meta_value AS CHAR) LIKE '%M\\%%') )
    [query_orderby] => ORDER BY user_login ASC
    [query_limit] =>

---

As you can see, the LIKE clause is escaped and wrapped with SQL wildcard operators. I can't figure out how to prevent this from happening as what I want is "LIKE 'M%'" to be my actually query.

Andrew Nacin wp@… via lists.automattic.com
11:24 am (1 day ago) to wp-hackers

Currently, "LIKE" prepends and appends wildcards, as in %term%. We could add "%LIKE" and "LIKE%", though that would not help with the situation where you want LIKE taken literally, potentially without % wildcards at all. (Such as using _ as a single-character wildcard, or looking for case insensitive matching.) Probably the best way to add to this API would be to allow for a 'like_escape' => false; that would accept your value as provided. If you'd like to submit a ticket (and patch), this can definitely find its way into 3.6.

Nacin

---

I have prepared a patch to meta.php which allows escaped LIKE and NOT LIKE meta compares to work properly.

[mpwalsh8]

Patch for meta.php to support this functionality