WP_Comments_Query::__construct() should allow a 'status__not_in' parameter

[pbiron]

WP_Comments_Query::__construct() (and hence, get_comments()) currently allows a status parameter to get comments with a specific status.

It would be useful to also allow $status__not_in to exclude comments with specific stati.

Related: #41338

[pbiron]

allow status__not_in parameter

[pbiron]

I went back-and-forth over whether the $status__not_in parameter should accept a space/comma separated list like $status does.

I decided to not allow that because it seems that is a "legacy" construct and $xxx__not_in parameters added more recently (in this class and others) only accept true arrays.

I'm certainly open to suggestions that it should allow a space/comma separated list.

[pbiron]

The patch I added does not contain the docblock fix from the related #41338.

[boonebgorges]

Thanks for the patch! The idea seems pretty good to me. I agree with your logic that it's only necessary to support arrays.

We will need some tests to support the new parameter. Specifically, I would like to see tests that demonstrate how status__not_in works when used alongside status. It appears that if I pass the same value to both, then there will be no 'status' clause at all (since array_diff( [ 'foo' ], [ 'foo' ] ) is an empty array). I'm not sure what the best behavior is here, but in any case, it should be documented with unit tests.

[pbiron]

I'll write some unit tests when I get a chance.

I'll look at how other classes that have both $xxx (or $xxx__in) and $xxx__not_in parameters deal with the case where the two "cancel each other out".